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Pluto’s moons.

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Today, Pluto is best known for
losing its status as a planet.

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But actually, we have discovered a few
new things about it in the last few years.

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The main one: it has more
moons than we thought.

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At least five, but there
might be even more!

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Charon dominates the moons.

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Because of its size and mass, it’s way
more influentual than the other four.

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Charon is so massive in relation to Pluto

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that the center of mass of the Pluto
system is outside the dwarf planet.

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So the moons are not orbiting Pluto,
but a point outside of it.

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This is unique in the Solar system,

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and some scientists even categorize
Pluto and Charon as a double system,

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instead of a dwarf planet
orbited by moons.

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Charon is composed either of layers of ice
and rock, or it’s a giant dirty iceball.

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If it weren’t orbiting Pluto, it would
itself be a dwarf planet.

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But what about the other moons?

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Well, to be honest, we don’t know
that much about them.

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Pluto is incredibly far away from Earth,
so it's hard to get detailed information.

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But this will change soon.

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In 2015, the space probe New Horizons will

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reach the Pluto system
after a 9-year journey

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and finally give us detailed information
about Pluto and its moon buddies.

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Let’s throw in some infographics
just for fun.

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This is Pluto and its moons to scale,
including spaces between them.

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This is the Pluto system,

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and this is Jupiter.

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It is bigger than the whole Pluto system.

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Jupiter is big!

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Okay, let’s wrap up.

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So even if Pluto isn’t a planet,

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it’s still very interesting
and worth exploring.

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In 2015 we’ll know more.

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If you can’t wait that long,
watch the other Moon May videos.