(Image source: SETI/NASA)
BY: TRACY PFEIFFER
ANCHOR: ANTHONY MARTINEZ
You're watching multisource science video news analysis from Newsy.
Pluto may have been demoted from “planet” to “dwarf planet” in 2006, but turns out -- it’s got more company than scientists thought.
Images from the Hubble Telescope have revealed a fourth moon orbiting what used to be our solar system’s ninth planet. (Images: SETI/NASA)
A writer for NPR notes -- it’s big news for NASA’s New Horizons probe, which is set to pass through the area in 2015.
“It's ... the only one of the original nine planets that NASA hasn't visited. That's why this find is important. First it shows that Hubble can image even tiny objects in space and second, it provides NASA's New Horizons mission headed to Pluto with a better lay of the land."
And TG Daily reports -- astronomers believe they’d seen the moon before, but never realized it.
“It apparently hadn't been seen in earlier Hubble images because the exposure times were shorter; NASA says there's a chance it appeared as a very faint smudge in 2006 images, but was overlooked because it was obscured."
And what’s the best part about discovering a celestial body? -- Naming it.
For now it’s called P4, but more creative names are already in the works. In a Space.com article hosted by Fox News, one researcher says -- they’ll probably stick with the ‘mythology’ theme.
"Cerberus: How could you go wrong with a name like that? But, unfortunately, Cerberus is already the name of an asteroid. ...Kerberos, [the spelling that] is closer to the original Greek, would be OK even if Cerberus is not. ...There are a lot of interesting names being discussed."
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Transcript by Newsy.
