Hubble spots Pluto's moons are a chaotic mess of tumbling rock

Astronomy fans are still split over whether it was right to declassify Pluto as a planet in 2006 and call it a dwarf. Now the latest data from the Hubble Space telescope shows that the distant rock-ball is far weirder than we first thought. Pluto has one large moon, dubbed Charon after its discovery in 1978, and the two orbit …

[ashdav]

Anyone else think that Nix looks like a potato ?

My first impression anyway.

[Mark 85]

I was thinking the same thing and you beat me to it.. have an upvote for being quick on the keyboard.

[Matthew Smith]

> "I was thinking the same thing and you beat me to it.. have an upvote for being quick on the keyboard."

So your comment was Nixed.

[hplasm]

That's is no moons...

That's is a dwarfes's - oh never minds...

[mr.K]

NO PHOTO FOR YOU (yet)

However, I doubt that is a photo, or a photo of Nix.

[TeeCee]

"That's no moon, it's a potato."

"It's too big to be a potato."

[AbelSoul]

Re: looks like a potato ?

So that explains where these guys come from.

[Doctor_Wibble]

Pluto, the never-ending source of argument

First it can't make up its mind if it's the outermost or not, then it causes arguments because someone thinks it's not big enough, and now we face turmoil as the flames of the 'potayto-potahto' schism are fanned anew, bringing us yet again to the brink of worldwide destruction. Who knew? I had always thought it was going to be the religious nutters.

[Winkypop]

Call it whatever you like

The science is awesome!

[richardcox13]

> "We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems,"

Someone needs to go back to school. The Three Body Problem has been known as long as gravity: Newton covered it in Principia…

[Anonymous Coward]

"We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems,"

There is a difference between a problem being too difficult to solve with the mathematics of the day, and chaotic behaviour (which afaik wasn't identified till the 20th century.)

[Torben Mogensen]

Re: "We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems,"

Actually, the three-body problem IS chaotic in the modern, mathematical sense. There are non-chaotic three-body configurations (for example, when several small bodies orbit a much larger mass in near-circular orbits), but the general problem is chaotic. Smaller moons closely orbiting two large co-orbiting bodes are almost bound to be a chaotic system.

[Don Dumb]

Re: "We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems,"

@Betacam - "The 3 body problem is why physicists rarely indulge in threesomes." - Well, that's what they would say.

Like many problems physicists deal with, finding reasons to reject threesomes is very much a theoretical exercise.

[Neil Barnes]

Never mind the orbits

That's a bloody odd-shaped moon - what's the physics behind that? Passed too close to a black hole before it set?

[Vulch]

Re: Never mind the orbits

It's a guess. There's enough evidence to tell they're not spherical and none of the four small moons have enough self-gravity to make them that way, so they're going to look like mid-sized asteroids.

[Shrimpling]

Re: Never mind the orbits

My guess is it will look nothing like this when the photos get sent back.

Remember the artist impressions of 67P before Rosetta got there? Those were based on the Hubble images too.

[Data Mangler]

Or perhaps...

It may be the egg of an enormous mutant star goat. It's time to give those telephones one last wipe before boarding the 'B' Ark.

[Sealand]

Re: Or perhaps...

They're eggs allright, but nothing sinister. Pluto is simply spawning.

[hplasm]

Re: Pluto is simply spawning.

Dog eggs?

[Hud Dunlap]

Re: Pluto is simply spawning.

Turtle eggs.

The great A'tuin.

Although I am not sure where the Elephants come from.

[Tom 7]

What the hell happens when it hatches?

Dr Who is quite prescient really....

[Ken Hagan]

Re: What the hell happens when it hatches?

Urghhh!!! Sorry, but please accept a downvote for reminding me of that episode.

[leon clarke]

Rugby Balls

I'm impressed that someone from the University of Maryland recognises the moons as rugby-ball shaped. I would have feared that people from near Maryland would mistake them for American Football shaped moons.

[Simon Harris]

Re: Rugby Balls

Doug Hamilton's ball identification skills are quite astute. American football balls have more pointy ends.

[cray74]

Re: Rugby Balls

Rugby, among other things, is a common subject for experimentation in US universities. Football players who have spent their childhood and teenage years throwing around a "pigskin" particularly seem to like to dabble in rugby because of the commonality in the sports. As I understand, rugby is faster and easier to play as "pick up" game because you don't need 50lbs of armor to play it, though US football players sometimes need a pre-game warning to tackle differently.

Unlike soccer, rugby hasn't picked up the same pre- and post-university following and professional clubs, but someone at a US university is more likely to be aware of it than elsewhere in the US.

[Kaltern]

Re: Rugby Balls

Football.

Not Soccer.

[cray74]

Not the odd one out?

I wouldn't chalk up Kereberos to being an oddball capture yet. The other moons have bright surfaces because of post-formation modifications, but the amount of hydrocarbons and other carbonaceous materials in the system would make it easy for Kereberos to have been heavily doused like Iapetus from a large impact on another moon.

[Matthew 17]

What if the mass of the New Horizons probe affects the delicate orbit

And destabilises the whole system?!!!

Humans will be accused of destroying other worlds 8)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What if the mass of the New Horizons probe affects the delicate orbit

dont worry the chaotic moons will just enter the inner solar-system and polish us off like the dinos

[Anonymous Coward]

Saturn to has chaotic moons too... and the Register should know!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/30/nasa_cassini_final_hyperion_saturn_flyby/

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's postulated that Pluto was once much larger and suffered an impact that formed Charon and most of the chaotic moons around the dwarf planet."

I still want to know why Neptune's orbit isn't as far out as Pluto's average orbital distance: this would validate Titius-Bode. I suspect something happened out there a long time ago, some big collision. Maybe a chunk from that collision bumped into us... and gave us the Moon.

[cray74]

"I still want to know why Neptune's orbit isn't as far out as Pluto's average orbital distance: "

See: Nice Model. The planets didn't settle down into a primate-pleasing, mathematically-simple arrangement because they're the result of chaotic collapse of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust. Our pre-solar cloud initially collapsed into a very different pattern than is observed today and the planets gradually migrated into the current configuration.

"this would validate Titius-Bode."

No, it wouldn't. Having the solar system set up in the pattern of Titius-Bode would be a single case of Titius-Bode working - a coincidence not repeated elsewhere. Titius-Bode is not repeated in the moon systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto, nor in any of the observed extra-solar planetary systems.

[The last doughnut]

Uranus is also strange, having its axis of rotation inclined at 89 degrees.

Personally I'm very excited about seeing the results from New Horizons.

Please feel free to snigger/make jokes about the name I still don't want to see yours thanks.