Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Pluto's moons tumbling in absolute chaos

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 4, 2015 at 2:42:42 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Pluto's moons tumbling in absolute chaos

3-Jun-2015
NASA's Hubble finds Pluto's moons tumbling in absolute chaos
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

If you lived on one of Pluto's moons, you might have a hard time determining when, or from which direction, the sun will rise each day. Comprehensive analysis of data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows that two of Pluto's moons, Nix and Hydra, wobble unpredictably.
Nature

3-Jun-2015
NASA's Hubble finds Pluto's moons tumbling in absolute chaos
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

IMAGE: This illustration shows the scale and comparative brightness of Pluto's small satellites. The surface craters are for illustration only and do not represent real imaging data. view more
Credit: Courtesy of NASA/ESA/A. Feild (STScI)
If you lived on one of Pluto's moons, you might have a hard time determining when, or from which direction, the sun will rise each day. Comprehensive analysis of data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows that two of Pluto's moons, Nix and Hydra, wobble unpredictably.
'Hubble has provided a new view of Pluto and its moons revealing a cosmic dance with a chaotic rhythm,' said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. 'When the New Horizons spacecraft flies through the Pluto system in July we'll get a chance to see what these moons look like up close and personal.'
The moons wobble because they're embedded in a gravitational field that shifts constantly. This shift is created by the double planet system of Pluto and Charon as they whirl about each other. Pluto and Charon are called a double planet because they share a common center of gravity located in the space between the bodies. Their variable gravitational field sends the smaller moons tumbling erratically. The effect is strengthened by the football-like, rather than spherical, shape of the moons. Scientists believe it's likely Pluto's other two moons, Kerberos and Styx, are in a similar situation.
The astonishing results, found by Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Californi,a and Doug Hamilton of the University of Maryland at College Park, will appear in the June 4 issue of the journal Nature.
'Prior to the Hubble observations, nobody appreciated the intricate dynamics of the Pluto system,' Showalter said. 'Our research provides important new constraints on the sequence of events that led to the formation of the system.'
Showalter also found three of Pluto's moons are presently locked together in resonance, meaning there is a precise ratio for their orbital periods.
'If you were sitting on Nix, you would see that Styx orbits Pluto twice for every three orbits made by Hydra,' noted Hamilton.
Hubble data also reveal the moon Kerberos is as dark as a charcoal briquette, while the other frozen moons are as bright as sand. It was predicted that dust blasted off the moons by meteorite impacts should coat all the moons, giving their surfaces a homogenous look, which makes Kerberos' coloring very surprising.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which will fly by the Pluto system in July, may help settle the question of the asphalt-black moon, as well as the other oddities uncovered by Hubble. These new discoveries are being used to plan science observations for the New Horizons flyby.
The turmoil within the Pluto-Charon system offers insights into how planetary bodies orbiting a double star might behave. For example, NASA's Kepler space observatory has found several planetary systems orbiting double stars.
'We are learning chaos may be a common trait of binary systems,' Hamilton said. 'It might even have consequences for life on planets if found in such systems.'
Clues to the Pluto commotion first came when astronomers measured variations in the light reflected off Nix and Hydra. Analyzing Hubble images of Pluto taken from 2005 to 2012, scientists compared the unpredictable changes in the moons' brightness to models of spinning bodies in complex gravitational fields.
Pluto's moons are believed to have been formed by a collision between the dwarf planet and a similar-sized body early in the history of our solar system. The smashup flung material that consolidated into the family of moons observed around Pluto today. Its binary companion, Charon, is almost half the size of Pluto and was discovered in 1978. Hubble discovered Nix and Hydra in 2005, Kerberos in 2011, and Styx in 2012. These little moons, measuring just tens of miles in diameter, were found during a Hubble search for objects that could be hazards to the New Horizons spacecraft as it passes the dwarf planet in July.
Researchers say a combination of Hubble data monitoring and New Horizon's brief close-up look, as well as future observations with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will help settle many mysteries of the Pluto system. No ground-based telescopes have yet been able to detect the smallest moons.
'Pluto will continue to surprise us when New Horizons flies past it in July,' Showalter said. 'Our work with the Hubble telescope just gives us a foretaste of what's in store.'
###
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.
For images and more information about Hubble, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
http://hubblesite.org/news/2015/24
For media teleconference briefing materials, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/briefing-materials-observations-of-pluto-s-moons

3-Jun-2015
Hubble observes chaotic dance of Pluto's moons
ESA/Hubble Information Centre

In a new study, scientists have gathered all available NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data on the four outer moons of Pluto to analyze the system in more depth than ever before. The observations show that at least two of Pluto's moons are not neatly rotating on their axes but are in chaotic rotation while orbiting around Pluto and its companion Charon.
Nature

heic1512 — Science Release
Hubble observes chaotic dance of Pluto's moons
3 June 2015

In a new study, scientists have gathered all available NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data on the four outer moons of Pluto to analyse the system in more depth than ever before. The observations show that at least two of Pluto's moons are not neatly rotating on their axes but are in chaotic rotation while orbiting around Pluto and its companion Charon. The study also hints that one of the moons has a mysterious jet-black colouring. These surprising results appear in the 4 June issue of the journal Nature.
Almost every moon in the Solar System, including our Moon, rotates on its axis at the same speed as it orbits its parent body. It is for this reason that we always see the same side of the Moon facing us on Earth. On Pluto, however, astronomers have now discovered that there are no hidden sides to its moons.
In a surprising new study, it has been found that two of Pluto's moons, Nix and Hydra, are in a chaotic rotation. This means that an observer on Pluto would not see the same face of the moons from one night to the next. For visitors on the moons themselves, things would get even more confusing, as every day would be a different length to the one that preceded it.
The other two moons studied, Kerberos and Styx, will likely be found to be chaotic too, pending further study.
"Prior to the Hubble observations, nobody appreciated the intricate dynamics of the Pluto system," explains Mark Showalter of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in California, USA, main author of the study.
The chaotic motion of the moons is caused by the system's two central bodies, Pluto and Charon [1]. "These two bodies whirl around each other rapidly, causing the gravitational forces that they exert on the small nearby moons to change constantly," explains Doug Hamilton, co-author of the study. "Being subject to such varying gravitational forces makes the rotation of Pluto's moons very unpredictable. The chaos in their rotation is further accentuated by the fact that these moons are not neat and round, but are actually shaped like rugby balls!"
The movement of the moons in the Pluto–Charon system offers valuable insights into how planets orbiting a double star might behave. "We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems," Hamilton continues. "It might even have consequences for life on planets orbiting binary stars."
Clues to the Pluto system chaos first came when astronomers measured variations in the light reflected off of the two small moons. Looking at images taken by Hubble between 2005 and 2012, the brightness was found to change unpredictably — instead of following a regular cycle — in a way that could only be explained by chaotic movement.
These images also showed that the moon Kerberos is charcoal-black in colour, a stark contrast to the bright white of the other moons. It was predicted that pollution from dust blasted off the satellites by meteorite impacts would coat the moons, giving their surfaces a homogenous look, but why Kerberos is black is a mystery.
The chaotic rotation of the moons was not the only surprise that arose from the study; Hubble's monitoring also revealed a connection between the orbits of the three moons Nix, Styx, and Hydra.
"Their motion is tied together in a way similar to that of three of Jupiter's large moons," noted Doug Hamilton of the University of Maryland, co-author of the study. "If you were sitting on Nix, you would see Styx go around Pluto twice every time Hydra goes around three times."
The chaotic movements found in this fascinating system do not necessarily mean that it is on the brink of flying apart. More studies are needed to determine the long-term fate of the Pluto system.
The researchers agree that a combination of monitoring data from Hubble, a close-up look from NASA's New Horizons space probe, which flies by the system in July 2015 [2], and, eventually, observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope will help to settle some of the many mysteries of the Pluto–Charon system.
"Pluto will continue to surprise us when New Horizons flies past it in July," Showalter said. "Our work with Hubble just gives us a foretaste of what's in store."
Notes
[1] Due to Charon's large size, Pluto and Charon orbit about a common centre of gravity that is located in the space between the bodies. Our moon has one eightieth of Earth's mass, whereas Charon has one eighth of Pluto's mass.
[2] NASA's New Horizons space probe was launched in 2006 to study Pluto, its moons, and other Kuiper belt objects. It will fly past the Pluto-Charon system on 14 July 2015 and will produce detailed surface maps of Pluto and all of its moons.
Notes for editors
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
The team of astronomers in this study consists of Mark R. Showalter (SETI Institute, USA) and Doug Hamilton (University of Maryland, USA)
Pluto's moons are hypothesised to have formed by a collision between the dwarf planet and another similar-sized body early in the history of the solar system. The smashup flung material that coalesced into the family of satellites observed around Pluto today. Pluto's large binary companion, Charon, was discovered in 1978. The object is almost half the size of Pluto. Hubble discovered Nix and Hydra in 2005, Kerberos in 2011, and Styx in 2012. These little moons, measuring just tens of miles across, were found as part of several Hubble searches for moons and rings to characterize the system in preparation for the New Horizons spacecraft flyby.
More information
Image credit: NASA, ESA, M. Showalter (SETI Inst.), G. Bacon (STScI)
Links
Images of Hubble
Link to hubblesite release
Link to science paper
Contacts
Mark R. Showalter
SETI Institute
California, USA
Tel: +1 650 810 0234
Email: mshowalter@seti.org
Doug Hamilton
Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland
Maryland, USA
Tel: +1 301 405 1548
Email: dphamil@astro.umd.edu
Mathias Jäger
ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 176 62397500
Email: mjaeger@partner.eso.org

Release No.:
heic1512
Images
PR Image heic1512a
The chaotic spin of Pluto's moon Nix
PR Image heic1512b
Pluto's moons
Videos
PR Video heic1512a
Animation of the chaotic spin of Pluto's moon Nix

3-Jun-2015
Pluto's moons seen in highest detail yet
University of Maryland

A new study in the journal Nature is the first to reveal fascinating details about the orbital and rotational patterns of Pluto and its five known moons. Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, form a 'binary planet' and four smaller moons orbit this pair. The paper reports the techniques used to discover the two smallest moons, Kerberos and Styx, and describes of the rotational states of the two slightly larger moons, Nix and Hydra.
Nature

Pluto's Moons Seen in Highest Detail Yet
June 3, 2015
Share Email Print
Contacts:
Matthew Wright 301-405-9267
Lee Tune 301-405-4679
New UMD study provides an exciting preview in advance of New Horizons flyby
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Much ink has been spilled over Pluto's reclassification as a dwarf planet. And yet, such discussions have not diminished scientific interest in Earth's most distant cousin. A new study by the University of Maryland is the first to reveal fascinating details about the orbital and rotational patterns of Pluto and its five known moons.
The study, to be published in the June 4, 2015 issue of the journal Nature, describes a system dominated by Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, which together form a "binary planet." Four smaller moons orbit this pair. The paper reports the techniques used to discover the two smallest moons, Kerberos and Styx, and also provides a detailed description of the strange and unpredictable rotational states of the two slightly larger moons, Nix and Hydra.
Later this summer, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will pass by Pluto and its five known moons, providing the most detailed look at this planetary system to date. Kerberos and Styx were discovered in 2011 and 2012, respectively, while Nix and Hydra were first discovered in 2005.
"Like good children, our moon and most others keep one face focused attentively on their parent planet," said Douglas Hamilton, professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland and a co-author of the Nature study. "What we've learned is that Pluto's moons are more like ornery teenagers who refuse to follow the rules."
The imbalanced and dynamically shifting gravitational field created by Pluto and Charon sends the smaller moons tumbling in unpredictable ways. The effect is amplified by the fact that the moons are roughly football shaped, rather than rounded spheres. The findings are the result of a comprehensive analysis of Hubble Space Telescope data regarding the orbits and properties of the four smaller moons.
In contrast to these seemingly random rotational motions, the moons follow a surprisingly predictable pattern as they orbit the binary planet formed by Pluto and Charon. Three of them—Nix, Styx and Hydra—are locked together in resonance, meaning that their orbits follow a clockwork pattern of regularity. The same effect can be seen in three of Jupiter's large moons.
"The resonant relationship between Nix, Styx and Hydra makes their orbits more regular and predictable, which prevents them from crashing into one another," Hamilton said. "This is one reason why tiny Pluto is able to have so many moons."
The study also revealed that Kerberos is as dark as charcoal, while the other moons are as bright as white sand. "This is a very provocative result," said lead author Mark Showalter, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute. Astronomers had predicted that dust created by meteorite impacts should coat all the moons evenly, giving their surfaces a uniform look.
"Prior to the Hubble observations, nobody appreciated the intricate dynamics of the Pluto system," Showalter said. The New Horizons flyby in July may help solve the mystery of Kerberos' dark surface, and will refine scientists' understanding of the odd rotational and orbital patterns uncovered by Hubble. The New Horizons team is using Showalter and Hamilton's discoveries to help guide science planning efforts.
Among other expected insights, a more detailed study of the chaotic Pluto-Charon system could reveal how planets orbiting a distant binary star might behave. Although many exoplanets have been found to orbit binary stars, these star systems are too far away to figure out their rotational patterns using existing technology.
"We are learning that chaos may be a common trait of binary systems," Hamilton said. "It might even have consequences for life on planets orbiting binary stars."
The research paper, "Resonant interactions and chaotic rotation of Pluto's small moons," Mark Showalter and Douglas Hamilton, will be published on June 4, 2015, in the journal Nature.

Copyright 2015 University of Maryland

Hubble shows Pluto's moons don't know which end is up
Posted on June 3, 2015 by William Harwood
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION
Pluto and its five known moons. Credit: NASA/STScI/Mar Showalter
As NASA's New Horizons probe closes in on Pluto, the Hubble Space telescope has been scouting its retinue of five known moons, discovering that at least two are tumbling chaotically in the complex gravity of the dwarf planet and its large moon, Charon, researchers said Wednesday.
The moons in question, Nix and Hydra, are believed to be too small for their own gravity to pull them into spheres and instead are thought to be elongated, shaped more like footballs or potatoes. Nix measures about 35 miles by 16 miles while Hydra is slightly larger, measuring approximately 36-by-21 miles.
The other two smaller moons in the Pluto system — Styx and Kerberos — are two small for Hubble to accurately determine their size or shape, but they are likely elongated as well. In any case, conventional wisdom holds that such moons would be gravitationally held in place with their long axes pointing toward the central body as they orbit their primary.
But data from the Hubble Space Telescope, based on a detailed analysis of brightness fluctuations, shows Nix and Hydra are instead moving in a chaotic manner due to complex gravitational interactions between the moons, Pluto and Charon.
"If you can imagine what it would be like to live on (such a moon), it's a very strange world," said Mark Showalter, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute and one of the lead authors of a report in the British journal Nature describing the observations. "You would literally not know if the sun is coming up tomorrow. For that matter, the sun might rise in the west and set in the East.
"In fact, if you had real estate on the north pole of Nix, you might suddenly discover one day you're on the south pole instead. This is the environment we're talking about for Nix and for Hydra and, we believe, for the other moons as well."
Charon, roughly half the size of Pluto, has a diameter of about 750 miles and takes 6.4 days to complete one orbit around the system's center of mass. That center of mass is located at a point in space roughly 600 miles from Pluto, leading many to consider Pluto and Charon a binary dwarf. The way that interact with each other and the other moons may provide insights into how planets might orbit binary stars.
Moving outward from Charon, discovered in 1978, astronomers using Hubble over the past several years found four additional moons: Styx, then Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.
This illustration shows the scale and comparative brightness of Pluto's small satellites. The surface craters are for illustration only and do not represent real imaging data.
Credit: NASA/ESA/A. Feild (STScI)
Hubble's keen vision also has revealed that Kerberos is as dark as charcoal while the others are much brighter. Scientists had expected all the moons would be more uniform in appearance, given their suspected common origin, but that is not the case.
"Nix and Hydra we find are fairly bright objects," Showalter said. "They reflect about 40 percent of the sunlight that hits them. That would be comparable to dirty snow or desert sand. We would definitely think of them as fairly bright objects. And in fact in this way they are very similar to Charon."
Styx is too small for Hubble astronomers to draw any conclusions. But Kerberos, which orbits between Nix and Hydra, turned out to be a "real shocker," Showalter said.
"Kerberos has to be a very, very dark object," he said. "In fact, it can only probably reflect about 4 percent of the light that strikes it. So think of a charcoal briquette orbiting between two dirty snowballs. That's a very, very strange result."
Scientists believe Pluto collided with another similarly-sized body billions of years ago, early in the history of the solar system. And therein lies the mystery.
"A lot of us believe this one impact created a big debris cloud and Charon formed out of the innermost part of that debris and, with some details still to be filled in, the other moons are probably leftovers from that cloud," said Douglas Hamilton, an astronomer at the University of Maryland and co-author of the Nature paper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zwSFC-aPEG0
"If you imagine that the impactor that plowed into Pluto was a very dark object — Pluto itself is a much brighter object — you would end up with this heterogeneous cloud where there's some dark material mixed in with the bright material and maybe Kerberos is just a chip off of the impactor rather than a chip off of Pluto."
The New Horizons probe is about 30 million miles from Pluto and closing in at nearly nine miles per second after a nine-year 3-billion-mile voyage from Earth. The spacecraft will fly past the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14.
Throughout the encounter, its cameras and instruments will study Pluto and its moons to determine their structure and composition, the constituents of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere and to gain insights into the nature of the remote Kuiper belt where Pluto and other remnants of the solar system's formation slowly orbit the distant sun.
"New Horizons will certainly revolutionize our knowledge of these moons," said John Spencer, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. "The pictures are getting better every day. It's really an exciting time for us."

© 2015 Spaceflight Now Inc.

By William Harwood
CBS News
June 3, 2015, 5:16 PM
Pluto's strange moons don't know which end is up
8 Photos
Image of Pluto taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. When it was discovered in 1930 by an astronomer from the United States, Pluto was known as the smallest planet in the solar system and the ninth planet from the sun. Nowadays, it is referred to as a "dwarf planet." Like other planets, so-called dwarf planets orbit the sun but they are so small they are not able to clear other objects out of their paths. The newest discoveries about Pluto add to the existing evidence portraying what would be a very inhospitable environment for visiting explorers. Hubble/NASA
As NASA's New Horizons probe closes in on Pluto, the Hubble Space telescope has been scouting its retinue of five known moons, discovering that at least two are tumbling chaotically in the complex gravity of the dwarf planet and its large moon, Charon, researchers said Wednesday.
The moons in question, Nix and Hydra, are believed to be too small for their own gravity to pull them into spheres and instead are thought to be elongated, shaped more like footballs or potatoes. Nix measures about 35 miles by 16 miles while Hydra is slightly larger, measuring approximately 36-by-21 miles.
The other two smaller moons in the Pluto system -- Styx and Kerberos -- are too small for Hubble to accurately determine their size or shape, but they are likely elongated as well. In any case, conventional wisdom holds that such moons would be gravitationally held in place with their long axes pointing toward the central body as they orbit their primary.
An artist's impression showing the relative sizes of Pluto's five known moons.
NASA
But data from the Hubble Space Telescope, based on a detailed analysis of brightness fluctuations, shows Nix and Hydra are instead moving in a chaotic manner due to complex gravitational interactions between the moons, Pluto and Charon.
"If you can imagine what it would be like to live on (such a moon), it's a very strange world," said Mark Showalter, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute and one of the lead authors of a report in the British journal Nature describing the observations. "You would literally not know if the sun is coming up tomorrow. For that matter, the sun might rise in the west and set in the East.
"In fact, if you had real estate on the north pole of Nix, you might suddenly discover one day you're on the south pole instead. This is the environment we're talking about for Nix and for Hydra and, we believe, for the other moons as well."
34 Photos
25 years of breathtaking Hubble Telescope images

Charon, roughly half the size of Pluto, has a diameter of about 750 miles and takes 6.4 days to complete one orbit around the system's center of mass. That center of mass is located at a point in space roughly 600 miles from Pluto, leading many to consider Pluto and Charon a binary dwarf. The way they interact with each other and the other moons may provide insights into how planets might orbit binary stars.
Moving outward from Charon, discovered in 1978, astronomers using Hubble over the past several years found four additional moons: Styx, then Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.
Hubble's keen vision also has revealed that Kerberos is as dark as charcoal while the others are much brighter. Scientists had expected all the moons would be more uniform in appearance, given their suspected common origin, but that is not the case.
"Nix and Hydra we find are fairly bright objects," Showalter said. "They reflect about 40 percent of the sunlight that hits them. That would be comparable to dirty snow or desert sand. We would definitely think of them as fairly bright objects. And in fact in this way they are very similar to Charon."
Styx is too small for Hubble astronomers to draw any conclusions. But Kerberos, which orbits between Nix and Hydra, turned out to be a "real shocker," Showalter said.
"Kerberos has to be a very, very dark object," he said. "In fact, it can only probably reflect about 4 percent of the light that strikes it. So think of a charcoal briquette orbiting between two dirty snowballs. That's a very, very strange result."
Scientists believe Pluto collided with another similarly-sized body billions of years ago, early in the history of the solar system. And therein lies the mystery.
"A lot of us believe this one impact created a big debris cloud and Charon formed out of the innermost part of that debris and, with some details still to be filled in, the other moons are probably leftovers from that cloud," said Douglas Hamilton, an astronomer at the University of Maryland and co-author of the Nature paper.
"If you imagine that the impactor that plowed into Pluto was a very dark object -- Pluto itself is a much brighter object -- you would end up with this heterogeneous cloud where there's some dark material mixed in with the bright material and maybe Kerberos is just a chip off of the impactor rather than a chip off of Pluto."
The New Horizons probe is about 30 million miles from Pluto and closing in at nearly nine miles per second after a nine-year 3-billion-mile voyage from Earth. The spacecraft will fly past the dwarf planet and its moons on July 14.
Throughout the encounter, its cameras and instruments will study Pluto and its moons to determine their structure and composition, the constituents of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere and to gain insights into the nature of the remote Kuiper belt where Pluto and other remnants of the solar system's formation slowly orbit the distant sun.
"New Horizons will certainly revolutionize our knowledge of these moons," said John Spencer, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. "The pictures are getting better every day. It's really an exciting time for us."
© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.