Pluto and Its Moons

Hubble discovered Pluto’s four small moons, Nix, Hydra, Styx, and Kerberos. This is a composite of two images of the Pluto system taken by Hubble in July 2012.

The blue areas are from a long exposure used to capture the tiny outer moons, but which greatly oversaturated Pluto and Charon.

The dark central vertical band is from a shorter exposure designed to show Pluto and Charon more clearly. The diameters of Pluto and its moons are not to scale.

Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, and L. Frattare (STScI)
Science Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute)