Glossary (PLUTO)

Clyde Tombaugh

Clyde Tombaugh was the American astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930 at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. His discovery marked the first identification of a celestial body beyond Neptune in our solar system.

NASA's New Horizons

NASA's New Horizons is a spacecraft mission launched in 2006 with the primary objective of studying Pluto and its moons. It made its historic flyby of Pluto in July 2015, providing detailed images and data about the dwarf planet's surface, atmosphere, and moons.

Charon

Charon is the largest moon of Pluto and was discovered in 1978. It is notable for its size relative to Pluto, forming a binary system with Pluto rather than simply orbiting it.

Nix

Nix is one of the small moons of Pluto, discovered in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is irregularly shaped and orbits Pluto at a distance greater than Charon.

Hydra

Hydra is another small moon of Pluto, also discovered in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is irregularly shaped and orbits Pluto at a greater distance than Nix.

Kerberos

Kerberos is a small moon of Pluto, discovered in 2011 by the Hubble Space Telescope. It has an irregular shape and orbits Pluto between the orbits of Nix and Hydra.

Styx

Styx is the smallest and outermost moon of Pluto, discovered in 2012 by the Hubble Space Telescope. It has an irregular shape and orbits Pluto at a greater distance than Kerberos.

Kuiper Belt

The Kuiper Belt is a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, extending from about 30 to 50 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. It is home to numerous small icy bodies, including Pluto, and is considered a relic of the early solar system's formation.