Moons of Pluto

Hubble image of the Plutonian system

Pluto has three known moons. The largest, Charon, is proportionally larger, compared to its primary, than any other satellite of a known planet or dwarf planet in the solar system. The other two moons, Nix and Hydra, are much smaller.^[1]

History

The orbits of the Plutonian system as seen from Earth, calculated from the discovery images of the outer moons.

The innermost moon, Charon, was discovered by James Christy on June 22, 1978, nearly half a century after Pluto. Two outer moons were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope Pluto Companion Search Team in May 2005, and precovered from Hubble images taken in June 2002. With the orbits confirmed, the moons have been given definitive names: Hydra (Pluto III, formerly S/2005 P 1) and Nix (Pluto II, formerly S/2005 P 2). The names were chosen in part because the initials (NH) allude to the New Horizons mission.^[2] Further Hubble observations were made in February and March 2006. Given the sensitivity of the Hubble images, and the fact that the entire region of space dominated by Pluto's gravitational field has been imaged, Pluto is not expected to have any other moons larger than approximately 12 km in diameter with the albedo of Charon, or possibly up to 40 km if they are as dark as the darkest Kuiper Belt objects. The possibility of rings created by impacts on the smaller moons will be investigated by the New Horizons probe.

The Plutonian system has not been visited by spacecraft, but a flyby by the New Horizons mission is due in July 2015.

Characteristics

The orbits of the Plutonian system as seen from the pole of Charon's orbit.

The Plutonian system is highly compact: The three known satellites orbit within the inner 3% of the region where prograde orbits would be stable.

Pluto and Charon have been called a double planet because Charon is larger compared to Pluto (half its diameter and an eighth its mass) than any other moon is to a planet; indeed Charon is massive enough that, despite their proximity, Pluto orbits the system's barycenter at a point outside its surface.^[3] Charon and Pluto are also tidally locked, so that they always present the same face toward each other.

Following Buie and Grundy's recent re-calculations taking into account older images, the orbits of the moons are confirmed to be circular and coplanar, with inclinations differing less than 0.4° and eccentricities less than 0.005. The diagram on the right shows the view from the axis of the moons' orbits (declination 0°, right ascension 133°), aligned with the HST diagram above it. As seen from Earth, these circular orbits appear foreshortened into ellipses depending on Pluto's position.^[4]

Relative sizes and colors of the Plutonian system.

When discovered, Hydra was somewhat brighter than Nix, and therefore thought to be larger by 20%, but follow-up observations found them to be nearly identical. It is likely that the change in brightness is due to the lightcurve of Hydra, but whether this is due to an irregular shape or to a variation in surface brightness (albedo) is unknown. The diameters of objects can be estimated from their assumed albedos; the estimates above correspond to a 35% albedo like Charon, but the moons could be as large as 130 km if they have the 4% albedo of the darkest KBOs. However, given their color and suspected chemical similarities to Charon, it is likely that their albedos are similar as well and that the diameters are closer to the lower estimates.

Resonances and formation

It is suspected that the Plutonian satellite system was created by a massive collision, similar to the "big whack" believed to have created the Earth's moon. In both cases it may be that the high angular momenta of the moons can only be explained by such a scenario. The nearly circular orbits of the smaller moons suggests that they were also formed in this collision, rather than being captured Kuiper Belt objects. This and their near orbital resonances with Charon (see below) suggest that they formed even closer to Pluto than they are at present, and that they migrated outward as Charon achieved its current orbit. If Hydra and Nix turn out to be tidally locked, as Charon is, that will settle the issue, as tidal forces are insufficient to damp their rotations in their present orbits. The color of each is a lunar grey like Charon,^[5] which is consistent with a common origin. Their difference in color from Pluto, one of the reddest bodies in the Solar system due to the effects of sunlight on the nitrogen and methane ices of its surface, may be due to a loss of such volatiles during the impact or subsequent coalescence, leaving the surfaces of the moons dominated by water ice. Such an impact would be expected to create additional debris (more moons), but these must be relatively small to have avoided detection by Hubble. It is possible that there are also undiscovered irregular satellites, which are captured Kuiper Belt objects.

Nix and Hydra are very close to a 1:4:6 orbital resonance with the Charon-Pluto orbital period: Nix is within 2.7% of resonance, while Hydra is within 0.3%, though neither are in an exact resonance. It may be that these orbits originated as forced resonances when Charon was tidally boosted into its current geosynchronous orbit, and then released from resonance as Charon's orbital eccentricity was tidally damped. Today the Pluto-Charon pair continue to produce strong tidal forces, with the gravitational field at the outer moons varying by 15% peak to peak. At the lower estimated size range, Nix should have no significant precession, while Hydra should have a precession period of 15 years. However, at their maximum projected masses (assuming an albedo of 4%), the two moons may be in a 3:2 orbital resonance with each other, with libration periods of 400 to 450 days, though this may already be ruled out by the low eccentricity of Charon.^[6] Thus accurate orbital data can help resolve the sizes of these moons.

However, it was recently calculated that a resonance with Charon could boost either Nix or Hydra into its current orbit, but not both: boosting Hydra would have required a near-zero Charonian eccentricity of 0.024, while boosting Nix would have required a larger eccentricity of at least 0.05. This suggests that Nix and Hydra were instead captured and migrated inward until they were trapped in resonance with Charon.^[7]

Creation of Pluto's Moons. Number 1 shows a Kuiper Belt Object nearing Pluto. Number 2 shows a KBO is impacting Pluto. Number 3 shows a dust ring forming around Pluto. Number 4 shows the debris clumping together to form Charon. Number 5 shows Pluto and Charon becoming a spherical body and Charon orbiting Pluto

Table

The Plutonian moons are listed here by orbital period, from shortest to longest. Moons massive enough for their surfaces to have collapsed into a spheroid are highlighted in light purple. Pluto has been added for comparison, for it orbits a point outside itself.

Notes:
Satellite data from Buie & Grundy; a, i, e updated with JPL (site updated 2008 Aug 25). Pluto data from D. R. Williams (September 7, 2006). "Pluto Fact Sheet". NASA. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/plutofact.html. Retrieved 2007-03-24. .
Orbital eccentricity and inclination of Pluto and Charon are equal since they refer to the same two-body problem (the gravitational influence of the minor satellites Nix and Hydra is neglected here).
Image of Charon courtesy of Marc W. Buie/Lowell Observatory^[8]

Name (pronunciation)			Image	Mean diameter (km)	Mass (×1021 kg)	Semi-major axis (km)	Orbital period (days)	Eccentricity	Inclination (to Pluto's equator)	Discovery date
Pluto				2390	13.05 ± 0.07	2 035*	6.387 230	0.0022	0.001°	1930
Pluto I	Charon	/ˈʃærən/,[9] /ˈkɛərən/		1207 ± 3	1.52 ± 0.06	17 536 ± 3*	6.387 230	0.0022	0.001°	1978
Pluto II	Nix	/ˈnɪks/		46-137	< 0.002	48 708	24.856 ± 0.001	0.0030	0.195°	2005
Pluto III	Hydra	/ˈhaɪdrə/		61-167	< 0.002	64 749	38.206 ± 0.001	0.0051	0.212°	2005

*The maximum distance between the centers of Pluto and Charon are the sums of their semi-major axes, 19,571 ± 4 km.

External links

• Animation of the Plutonian system
• Hubble Spots Possible New Moons Around Pluto (NASA)
• Two More Moons Discovered Orbiting Pluto (SPACE.com)

Pluto Characteristics Atmosphere · Moons (Charon · Nix · Hydra) Discovery Lowell Observatory · Planet X · Percival Lowell · Roger Putnam · Clyde Tombaugh Exploration New Horizons · Pluto Fast Flyby · Pluto Kuiper Express 20th Century Classification Planet · Kuiper belt 21st Century Classification Dwarf planet · Plutoid · Definition of planet · IAU definition of planet · Kuiper belt · Trans-Neptunian object · International Astronomical Union Other topics Pluto in fiction · Solar eclipses on Pluto · Plutino · Pluto (mythology)

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Notes

References

• S.A. Stern, H.A. Weaver, A.J. Steffl, M.J. Mutchler, W.J. Merline, M.W. Buie, E.F. Young, L.A. Young, & J.R. Spencer (2006), Characteristics and Origin of the Quadruple System at Pluto, Nature, submitted (preprint)
• Steffl A.J., Mutchler M.J., Weaver H.A., Stern S.A., Durda D.D., Terrell D., Merline W.J., Young L.A., Young E.F., Buie M.W., Spencer J.R. (2005), New Constraints on Additional Satellites of the Pluto System, Astronomical Journal, submitted (preprint)
• Buie M.W., Grundy W.M., Young, E.F., Young L.A., Stern S.A. (2005), Orbits and photometry of Pluto's satellites: Charon, S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, submitted (preprint)
• IAU Circular No. 8625 describing the discovery
• IAU Circular No. 8686 which reports a much more neutral color for P2
• IAU Circular No. 8723 announcing the names of Nix and Hydra
• Background Information Regarding Our Two Newly Discovered Satellites of Pluto – The discoverers' website