The Small Satellites of Pluto as Observed by New Horizons
Abstract
The New Horizons mission has provided resolved measurements of Pluto's moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. All four are small, with equivalent spherical diameters of 40 km for Nix and Hydra and ~10 km for Styx and Kerberos. They are also highly elongated, with maximum to minimum axis ratios of 2. All four moons have high albedos ( 50-90 %) suggestive of a water-ice surface composition. Crater densities on Nix and Hydra imply surface ages 4 Ga. The small moons rotate much faster than synchronous, with rotational poles clustered nearly orthogonal to the common pole directions of Pluto and Charon. These results reinforce the hypothesis that the small moons formed in the aftermath of a collision that produced the Pluto-Charon binary.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.1604.05366,
title = {The Small Satellites of Pluto as Observed by New Horizons},
author = {H. A. Weaver and M. W. Buie and B. J. Buratti and W. M. Grundy and T. R. Lauer and C. B. Olkin and A. H. Parker and S. B. Porter and M. R. Showalter and J. R. Spencer and S. A. Stern and A. J. Verbiscer and W. B. McKinnon and J. M. Moore and S. J. Robbins and P. Schenk and K. N. Singer and O. S. Barnouin and A. F. Cheng and C. M. Ernst and C. M. Lisse and D. E. Jennings and A. W. Lunsford and D. C. Reuter and D. P. Hamilton and D. E. Kaufmann and K. Ennico and L. A. Young and R. A. Beyer and R. P. Binzel and V. J. Bray and A. L. Chaikin and J. C. Cook and D. P. Cruikshank and C. M. Dalle Ore and A. M. Earle and G. R. Gladstone and C. J. A. Howett and I. R. Linscott and F. Nimmo and J. Wm. Parker and S. Philippe and S. Protopapa and H. J. Reitsema and B. Schmitt and T. Stryk and M. E. Summers and C. C. C. Tsang and H. H. B. Throop and O. L. White and A. M. Zangari},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.05366},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
in Science 351, aae0030 (2016)