These NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of Pluto were taken on March 2, 2006, using the High Resolution Channel (HRC) of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The image on the left was taken through a blue filter (F435W), and the one on the right was taken through a red filter (F606W). By comparing these two images in detail, astronomers discovered that the surfaces of Pluto's two newly-discovered satellites (S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2, or P1 and P2 for short) have essentially the same color as Charon's surface. All three satellites have surfaces that reflect sunlight with equal efficiency at all wavelengths, which means they have the same color as Earth's moon (in the absence of Earth's atmospheric effects which can alter the apparent color of our moon). In contrast, Pluto's surface has a reddish hue. The remarkable similarity in the colors of the satellites supports the idea that they were all created from material stripped from the surface layers of Pluto during the giant impact that created the entire system more than 4 billion years ago. (Note that the color schemes used to display the images are not meant to represent the colors of the objects. Rather, a blue intensity scale is used for the image taken through the F435W filter and a red intensity scale is used for the F606W image simply to highlight that the images were obtained through two different filters.)
Credits
NASA, ESA, A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute), H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Pluto |
| Object Description | Dwarf Planet with Satellites |
| Distance | Although its orbit is highly eccentric, Pluto's average distance from the Sun is 39.44 Astronomical Units (A.U.) or roughly 3.6 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers). |
| Dimensions | Pluto has a diameter of roughly 1,416 miles (2,280 km) at the equator. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | These HST data are from proposal : H.A. Weaver (JHU/APL), S.A. Stern and J.R. Spencer (SwRI), M.W. Buie (Lowell Obs.), E. Young, L.A. Young, and A.J. Steffl (SwRI), M. Mutchler (STScI) and W.J. Merline (SwRI). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/HRC |
| Exposure Dates | March 2, 2006 |
| Filters | Left: F435W (B) Right: F606W (V) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | Blue: F435W (B) Red: F606W (V) |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
