NASA discovers Pluto's fifth moon

[Gahars]

Pluto, the lonely little dwarf planet that got kicked out of the Cool Planets Club a few years ago, seems to have yet another moon. The moon (Pluto's fifth) has been given the creative name of "P5".

NASA

For being the runt of the litter, Pluto seems pretty popular with orbiting satellites. No wonder it's an "icy dwarf planet"; it's so (as the kids say) chill.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Screw the astronomers! Pluto is still a planet, and I will be among the survivors from the Plutonian invasions because I didn't vote for it being the weakest link!

 

[Foie]

It's funny that we're looking for planets in other solar systems, yet we don't even know all that much about our own (ex)planets.

 

[Gahars]

It's funny that we're looking for planets in other solar systems, yet we don't even know all that much about our own (ex)planets.

If you find that funny, you should see how much we know about Earth's own oceans.

 

[KingVamp]

For being the runt of the litter, Pluto seems pretty popular with orbiting satellites. No wonder it's an "icy dwarf planet"; it's so (as the kids say) chill.

That was so bad, I felt my ears clench. I ever almost forgot to p2.

 

[FAST6191]

Choice video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2gbGXzFbs

Anyway whoo astronomy? In recent years it is probably second only to biology in terms of things I do not dismiss but usually fail to catch my interest as far as catching me reading up on the matter goes but good stuff none the less.

 

[AlanJohn]

Awesome.

 

[indask8]

I wonder how such a small "planet" can attract all those moons, gravity should be near zero... pretty sure any asteroid hitting those moons will eject them from their orbit, if it can send one of those into earth orbit, I'm interested, I'm bored of a single moon...

 

[Bladexdsl]

The moon (Pluto's fifth) has been given the creative name of "P5".

what a lame name they should call it mickey

 

[lostdwarf]

I wonder how such a small "planet" can attract all those moons, gravity should be near zero... pretty sure any asteroid hitting those moons will eject them from their orbit, if it can send one of those into earth orbit, I'm interested, I'm bored of a single moon...

134340 Pluto(that is it's real name now), is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System (after Eris) and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun. Originally classified as the ninth planet from the Sun, Pluto was recategorized as a dwarf planet and plutoid due to the discovery that it is only one of several large bodies within the Kuiper belt.
(source wikipedia)

Pluto has a surface gravity (approx-will know for sure in 2015 when new horizons spacecraft enters orbit around it) of 1/15th of the Earth.
That means if you weigh 15 stone, you would weigh just 1 stone on pluto.

This is still a hell of a lot of gravity, enough to clear all objects out of it's orbital path (this was the reason it was originally called a planet) and any impact will just impact it and not change it's orbit.

 

[Skelletonike]

It's funny that we're looking for planets in other solar systems, yet we don't even know all that much about our own (ex)planets.

If you find that funny, you should see how much we know about Earth's own oceans.

Personally I still believe that we have some creatures enourmous creatures in the depths of the sea, surviving in that pitch black, freezing and with deadly pressure environment.
Didn't some giant octupus or something surface a few years ago that had its body all beat up by unknown causes (pressure most likely)? Not to mention that no man made tool has reached to the deepest part of the sea that I recall, they all end up destroyed by the pressure.

(It could be possible that since it's such a cold and dark place that the creatures down there could've mutated to adapt, like all creatures, including humans have done in the past, what sort of creature would be able to witstand that pressure? But alas, there' prolly nothing there.)


On the pluto topic, that's really interesting... Five moons, and they still discarded him as a planet, how cruel of them! D

 

[Luna]

It's funny that we're looking for planets in other solar systems, yet we don't even know all that much about our own (ex)planets.

If you find that funny, you should see how much we know about Earth's own oceans.

Personally I still believe that we have some creatures enourmous creatures in the depths of the sea, surviving in that pitch black, freezing and with deadly pressure environment.
Didn't some giant octupus or something surface a few years ago that had its body all beat up by unknown causes (pressure most likely)? Not to mention that no man made tool has reached to the deepest part of the sea that I recall, they all end up destroyed by the pressure.

(It could be possible that since it's such a cold and dark place that the creatures down there could've mutated to adapt, like all creatures, including humans have done in the past, what sort of creature would be able to witstand that pressure? But alas, there' prolly nothing there.)


On the pluto topic, that's really interesting... Five moons, and they still discarded him as a planet, how cruel of them! D<

Deepest part of the ocean is the Mariana Trench: And just under 11 km in dept.

Descents

Four descents have been achieved. The first was the manned descent by Swiss-designed, Italian-built, United States Navy-owned bathyscaphe Trieste which reached the bottom at 1:06 pm on 23 January 1960, with U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh andJacques Piccard on board.[8][16] Iron shot was used for ballast, with gasoline forbuoyancy.[8] The onboard systems indicated a depth of 11,521 m (37,799 ft), but this was later revised to 10,916 m (35,814 ft).[17] The depth was estimated from a conversion of pressure measured and calculations based on the water density from sea surface to seabed.[16]

This was followed by the unmanned ROVs Kaikō in 1996 and Nereus in 2009. The first three expeditions directly measured very similar depths of 10,902 to 10,916 m.

The fourth was made by Canadian film director James Cameron in 2012. On 26 March, he reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the submersible vessel, theDeepsea Challenger.[18][19][20] The exploration was co-sponsored by The National Geographic Foundation and Rolex.[21][22]