Wires, BBC, etc on a dwarf and its teeny companions
Even with its demotion, Pluto makes news. It has such a swell back story – discovered almost by accident, way overestimated in size at first, and then cast from the list of real planets and given a considerable recompense: Lord of the Kuiper Belt. That’s an exaggeration, but it does have more seniority than it did.
Now astronomers say that, with the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope, they count a fourth tiny moon in its family, big and recently familiar Charon, fairly hefty Nix and Hydra, and now puny P4, yet to have a name from anybody’s mythology.
NASA made the announcement. No sign of a journal article or other event to pin it on.
Stories:
- Reuters – Deborah Zabaranko: Hubble finds a tiny fourth moon around Pluto ;
- AFP - Hubble telescope spots tiny fourth moon near Pluto;
- AP (very short) :New but tiny moon found circling distant Pluto ;
- BBC – Jonathan Amos: Hubble spies fourth moon at Pluto ;
- MSNBC Cosmic Log – Alan Boyle: Scientists spot Pluto’s fourth moon; Well reported, not just regurgitation. And Boyle, author of a book about Pluto, gets in a final, polite plea for Pluto’s backclassification to planethood.
- USA Today ScienceFair blog – Dan Vergano: Hubble points to Pluto’s fourth moon ;
- New Scientist – David Shiga: Fourth moon discovered around Pluto;
- Astronomy Now – Emily Baldwin: Hubble discovers Pluto’s fourth moon;
- Sky & Telescope – Raphael Rosen: Hubble Spots New Moon Orbiting Pluto ;
- …. could do more, morning’s up.
Grist for the Mill: NASA Press Release ;
- Charlie Petit
