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Animation of moons of Pluto around the barycenter of Pluto - Ecliptic plane. Pluto's four small circumbinary moons orbit Pluto at two to four times the distance of Charon, ranging from Styx at 42,700 kilometres to Hydra at 64,800 kilometres from the barycenter of the system.
Quick Facts. Pluto's moons to scale. The largest, Charon, is displayed along the bottom. Pluto's moon system – Charon, Nix, Hydra, Styx, and Kerberos – is believed to have formed after a collision between Pluto, and another Kuiper Belt Object early in the history of the solar system.
Pluto has five known moons. The largest, Charon, is half the size of Pluto. Charon’s period of revolution is exactly equal to the rotation period of Pluto itself; in other words, Charon is in synchronous orbit around Pluto. As a result, Charon is visible from only one hemisphere of Pluto.
Pluto has five known moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx. This moon system might have formed by a collision between Pluto and another similar-sized body early in the history of the solar system.
Pluto Moons - NASA. News & Articles. See All News. Article. 4 Min Read. 45 Years Ago: Astronomers Discover Pluto’s Moon Charon. Article. 5 Min Read. Using “Charon-light,” Researchers Image Pluto’s Dark Side in Faint Moonlight. Article. 13 Min Read. Five Years after New Horizons’ Historic Flyby, Here Are 10 Cool Things We Learned About… Article.
Pluto is orbited by five known moons, the largest of which is Charon. Charon is about half the size of Pluto itself, making it the largest satellite relative to the planet it orbits in our solar system. Pluto and Charon are often referred to as a "double planet."
Pluto possesses five known moons. Charon, by far the largest, is fully half the size of Pluto. It revolves around Pluto—more accurately, the two bodies revolve around a common centre of mass—at a distance of about 19,640 km (12,200 miles), equal to about eight Pluto diameters.
Pluto possesses five known moons. Charon is by far the largest, being fully half the size of Pluto. Pluto’s other four moons—Hydra, Nix, Kerberos, and Styx—are much smaller than Charon.
Pluto and its Moons. An image of the Pluto system taken by Hubble, showing five moons (Charon plus four much smaller bodies) orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto; added lines show the orbits of the outer four moons.
Charon (/ ˈkɛərɒn, - ən / KAIR-on, -ən or / ˈʃærən / SHARR-ən), [note 1] or (134340) Pluto I, is the largest of the five known natural satellites of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a mean radius of 606 km (377 mi). Charon is the sixth-largest known trans-Neptunian object after Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Gonggong. [18] .