HUBBLE ATLAS
Pluto and Its Moons: Charon, Nix, and Hydra (Pluto, Charon, Nix, Hydra) — image from the Hubble Space Telescope

Solar System

Pluto and Its Moons: Charon, Nix, and Hydra

April 21, 2009 · NASA · Pluto, Charon, Nix, Hydra

Zoom to full resolution Original on NASA ↗

A pair of small moons that NASA's Hubble Space Telescope discovered orbiting Pluto now have official names: Nix and Hydra. Photographed by Hubble in 2005, Nix and Hydra are roughly 5,000 times fainter than Pluto and are about two to three times farther from Pluto than its large moon, Charon, which was discovered in 1978.