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The Planetary Society Blog

By Emily Lakdawalla

The two new moons of Pluto are gray

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Not to be outdone by all the news coming out about Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Hayabusa, and Enceladus, the Space Telescope Science Institute issued a press release yesterday about the follow-up observations made by Hal Weaver and Alan Stern of the Pluto system using the Hubble Space Telescope. (Stern talked about these observations in the February 20 episode of Planetary Radio, but couldn't report the results yet then.) Their observations indicate that the new moons look similar in color to Pluto's biggest companion Charon -- that is to say, gray, with little difference in reflectivity between longer and shorter wavelength visible light. This is unlike Pluto, which is more red -- in other words, it reflects red light more strongly than shorter wavelength light. They say this adds support to the claim they made in their Nature papers a couple of weeks ago, that all three of Pluto's moons formed in a single event.

In related news, New Horizons fired its engines for 76 seconds on March 9 to adjust its speed and course to hit their Jupiter aimpoint for their gravity assist next year. All's well with the spacecraft.