[AZ-Observing] Re: New moons of Pluto
- From: Stan Gorodenski <stan_gorodenski@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 14:13:10 -0800
Mars has two satellites, Jupiter has a bunch, Saturn has a bunch, and
now Pluto three. Why does the Earth only have one? In a sense apples and
oranges are being compared because Pluto is not a real planet except in
a cultural sense. Aside from this I suppose the answer is two fold. The
Earth's Moon is of sufficient gravity to sweep up other smaller
satellites, and for Pluto its moon's are a dynamic thing. That is,
because of Pluto's local environ, as the smaller moons, or moonlets, are
swept up by its largest satellite, there are plenty of other chunks of
matter that can become the new moons, or moonlets.
Stan
Brian Skiff wrote:
> Two new satellites of Pluto were announced today by a team led by
>Hal Weaver at Johns Hopkins and Alan Stern at Southwest Research Institute.
>Details can be found here:
>
>http://www.boulder.swri.edu/plutonews
>
>
>\Brian
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