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Astronomers announced the discovery of a fourth moon of Pluto, viewed through photos from the Hubble telescope.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0 ... NASA-probe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.space.com/11431-photos-pluto ... lanet.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tentatively called P4, it's basically a small frozen rock orbiting a slightly larger frozen rock. I don't know what this means in the grand scheme of things.

- Jim

to me if something is orbiting it, it is a planet.

poor Pluto, so loved, yet so disrespected.

Clyde, I know you look down with sadness on our foolish ways.

Do not despair, your Pluto will regain its greatness some day

Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

- Jim

philip964 wrote:to me if something is orbiting it, it is a planet.

Well, the Earth orbits the Sun -- does that make the Sun a planet?

I don't know the point of arguing about what is or isn't a planet. There may well be a distant body in the Kuiper belt or Oort cloud that is larger than Pluto.

ISTR there is an asteroid that has a tiny satellite, but don't quote me on that.

- Jim

Finally, a topic I can shed some light on. I am required to take a couple of physics classes, so I am currently taking a few astronomy classes! Unfortunately, our school has a planetarium, and the class is in the planetarium.... and the class is 2 hours long since it is currently summer session----so i sleep a lot. Between naps, I have gathered this about pluto:

It is a "dwarf planet"
It lost its place as a planet because it is so different from our other "traditional" planets.
It is composed of a bunch of frozen ice, helium, and other gasses.
It's tiny--even smaller than our moon.

I guess I dont have as much information as I thought.

The earth's moon is big. Only couple or three moons of Jupiter and Saturn are larger (Ganymede and Titan, I think, but don't quote me).

The main problem with Pluto is that when they got a decent image of it, it turned out to look like an iceberg rather than a spherical planet.

- Jim

You are correct, SeamusTx! Ganymede and Titan are the bigger moons.

We actually have a rover of some sort out and about space somewhere taking pictures of those far outer planets.

The two Voyager craft are still out there, still sending back photos.

viewtopic.php?f=83&t=40428" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think Galileo is still limping along also. Or did it crash into Jupiter? I forget.

P.S.: Intentionally crashed in 2003: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hubble seems to be able to take better photos now when it can get a clear view of something.

- Jim

To put it in perspective, the newly discovered P4 would fit within the confines of Houston's 610 Loop. Even Houston doesn't fit inside the 610 Loop...

I just hope that none in NASA would come up with mission to said moon, costing 100s of millions of dollars that has 0 return on our investment.
NASA getting so expensive institution that I can't describe what a waste of money.

BTW, anyone knows what discoveries or advances in science or return on investment of the 200 billions dollars spent on the space station?

OK. I was wrong about a couple of things.

Pluto is a sphere. These are visible-light photos taken by Hubble years ago:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... -pictures/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv ... es/2010/06" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is a spacecraft named New Horizons that was launched in 2006 and is about halfway to Pluto now.

- Jim

Beiruty wrote:I just hope that none in NASA would come up with mission to said moon, costing 100s of millions of dollars that has 0 return on our investment.

What's the point of knowing anything? You could spend your life like an animal looking only at the ground between your feet and thinking only of your next meal.

Probably the space station has not produced a return on investment. However, it is a first step to a manned space program going farther. Some day mankind has to get off this planet or die here as a species.

You could not live modern life without satellites for weather, GPS, communications, and surveillance. You may not personally have contact with them, but you use what they make possible.

- Jim

seamusTX wrote:
Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

- Jim

Don't be Goofy!

seamusTX wrote:

Beiruty wrote:I just hope that none in NASA would come up with mission to said moon, costing 100s of millions of dollars that has 0 return on our investment.

What's the point of knowing anything? You could spend your life like an animal looking only at the ground between your feet and thinking only of your next meal.

Probably the space station has not produced a return on investment. However, it is a first step to a manned space program going farther. Some day mankind has to get off this planet or die here as a species.

You could not live modern life without satellites for weather, GPS, communications, and surveillance. You may not personally have contact with them, but you use what they make possible.

- Jim

Not every expedition or adventure is an investment that is expected to return a monetary value. IMO, exploration and research for the sake of knowledge are worthy and noble causes.