This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. The green circle marks the newly discovered moon, designated P5, as photographed by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on July 7, 2012.
Dwarf planet Pluto is seen in an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Illustration of the Pluto satellite system orbits with newly discovered moon P4 highlighted, released July 20, 2011.
A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. Image released July 11, 2012.
A white arrow marks Pluto in this New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) picture taken Sept. 21, 2006, marking the spacecraft's first look at its target planet.
Two labeled images of the Pluto system, released on July 20, 2011, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 ultraviolet visible instrument with newly discovered fourth moon P4 circled. The image on the left was taken on June 28, 2011. The image of the right was taken on July 3, 2011.
These NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of Pluto and its moons were taken on March 2, 2006.
New annotated image showing Pluto and moons, including the newly discovered P4, released July 20, 2011.
From left to right is the before, during and after of the occultation of C313.2 by Charon on July 11. The brightest object in the center of the frame is Pluto. Below and to the left is the merged light from Charon and the background star. During the occultation (center image), only Charon is visible. The images are from the 6.5-meter Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.
Hubble images revealing Pluto, its large moon Charon, and the planet's two new satellites. The candidate moons aren't visible in the short-exposure image [left], but can be seen in the middle and right-hand images.
An image of the Pluto system taken with the one of the ground-based Keck telescopes in Hawaii. The Pluto system moved with respect to the background stars during the one hour of observations, leaving the stars trailed in this image.
This is the most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003. The center disk (180 degrees) has a mysterious bright spot that is unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. The image was released in February 2010. See the dwarf planet turn in a video based on these images.
This artist's rendering depicts the New Horizons spacecraft as it approaches Pluto and its moons in summer 2015.
The artist's concept gives a view of the Pluto system from the surface of Nix or Hydra, two of its moons discovered in 2005. Nix and Hydra are two to three times farther from Pluto than its large moon, Charon (to the right of Pluto), which was discovered in 1978.
The announcement of Pluto's discovery in 1930, put out by the Lowell Observatory a few weeks after the observations had been made and analyzed.
Artist’s impression of how the surface of Pluto might look. The image shows patches of pure methane on the surface.
An artist's conception of Charon with Pluto in the background. The plumes and brighter spots depicted on Charon are thought to due to ammonia-laced water erupting from deep beneath the moon's surface.
This artist's impression shows the distant dwarf planet Eris. New observations have shown that Eris is smaller than previously thought and almost exactly the same size as Pluto. Eris is extremely reflective and its surface is probably covered in frost formed from the frozen remains of its atmosphere.
This diagram shows the path of a faint star during the occultation of the dwarf planet Eris in November 2010. Two sites in South America saw the faint star briefly disappear as its light was blocked by Eris and another recorded no change in brightness. Studies of where the event was seen, and for how long, have allowed astronomers to measure the size of Eris accurately for the first time. Surprisingly, they find it to be almost exactly the same size as Pluto and that it has a very reflective surface.
This artist's impression shows the distant dwarf planet Eris in the distance with its moon Dysmonia in the foreground. New observations have shown that Eris is smaller than previously thought and almost exactly the same size as Pluto. Eris is extremely reflective and its surface is probably covered in frost formed from the frozen remains of its atmosphere. Dysnomia appears to be a darker and less reflective body.
This artist’s impression shows the shadow of the dwarf planet Eris as it was crossing the Earth during the occultation during November 2010. The regions along the path saw a faint star briefly disappear as its light was blocked by Eris. Studies of where the event was seen, and for how long, have allowed astronomers to measure the size of Eris accurately for the first time. Surprisingly, they find it to be almost exactly the same size as Pluto and that it has a very reflective surface.
This artist's impression shows the distant dwarf planet Eris. New observations have shown that Eris is smaller than previously thought and almost exactly the same size as Pluto. Eris is extremely reflective and its surface is probably covered in frost formed from the frozen remains of its atmosphere. The distant Sun appears to the upper right and both Eris and its moon Dysnomia (center) appear as crescents.
