Merrillville Community Planetarium
Bringing the Universe to the Merrillville Schools and Northwest Indiana

Pluto

Pluto Has Three Moons

In 1930, astronomers discovered Pluto. In 1978, astronomers discovered one moon, Charon, orbiting Pluto. Now astronomers have discovered two more natural satellites, or moons, orbiting Pluto. Marc Buie and his team at the Lowell Observatory studied eight-minute exposure images taken by Hubble Space Telescope in 2002. In May 2005, they identified two new moons orbiting Pluto. It’s the only quadruple system found in the Kuiper Belt.

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