When it comes to Pluto's moons, we are always talking about Charon. But what about the little guys? This is Pluto in a Minute.
Pluto has five moons. Charon is the largest; it's actually half the size of Pluto, and the other four are completely dwarfed by this largest moon.
Nix and Hydra are the largest of the smaller moons but they are still quite little. Both were discovered in 2005 using the Hubble Space Telescope but it wasn't until recently that the New Horizons spacecraft was able to return the right data to tell scientists exactly how big these small moons are.
New Horizons images of Nix reveals its largely neutral grey in colour but features an area with a distinct reddish tint that kind of looks like a bullseye pattern suggestive that it might be a crater. Hydra, meanwhile, looks a bit like an easy chair or a mitten depending on how you look at it, and there are two area that looks like they've been hit with bodies and are heavily cratered.
The other two moons Kerberos and Styx are even smaller than Nix and Hydra, and even with the best images from New Horizons they will barely be more than dots in the sky. And incredibly with a system with so many small moons, New Horizons didn't find any new satellites around Pluto during its approach to the Pluto System.
For more on Pluto and all it's moons check out the New Horizons websites, join the conversation online with the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and of course keep coming back right here for more Pluto in a Minute.
www.nasa.gov/newhorizons
pluto.jhuapl.edu
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