Pluto's Five Moons Explained

Pluto’s moons.

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

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

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

At least five, but there
might be even more!

Charon dominates the moons.

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

Charon is so massive in relation to Pluto

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

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

This is unique in the Solar system,

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

instead of a dwarf planet
orbited by moons.

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

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

But what about the other moons?

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

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

But this will change soon.

In 2015, the space probe New Horizons will

reach the Pluto system
after a 9-year journey

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

Let’s throw in some infographics
just for fun.

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

This is the Pluto system,

and this is Jupiter.

It is bigger than the whole Pluto system.

Jupiter is big!

Okay, let’s wrap up.

So even if Pluto isn’t a planet,

it’s still very interesting
and worth exploring.

In 2015 we’ll know more.

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