Styx
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered icy dwarf planet Pluto's fifth moon in 2012. In 2013, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named the tiny satellite Styx. Styx was uncovered in a Hubble survey searching for potential hazards for the 2015 New Horizons spacecraft flyby of Pluto.
It is intriguing that such a small planet can have such a complex collection of satellites. The discovery provides additional clues for unraveling how the Pluto system formed and evolved. The favored theory is that all the moons are relics of a collision between Pluto and another large Kuiper belt object billions of years ago.
The moon is estimated to be 6 to 15 miles across. It is in a 58,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around Pluto that is assumed to be co-planar with the other satellites in the system.
Parent Object: Pluto
Changing Data
- Rises:
- Sets:
- Apparent Magnitude:
- Illumination:
- %
- Size (")
- Distance in light minutes:
- Distance in miles:
- 0
- Distance in AU:
Orbital Data
- Rotational Period:
- Orbital Period:
- Periapsis:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Apoapsis:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Epoch:
- Inclination:
- °
- Semi-Major Axis:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Orbit Circumference:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Eccentricity:
- Ascending Node:
- °
- Axial Tilt:
- °
- Albedo:
- Color BV:
- Color UV:
- Equatorial Diameter:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Equatorial Circumference:
- 0.000 * 100 km
- Surface Area:
- 0.000 * 100 km2
- Surface Gravity:
- m/s2
- Surface Temperature:
- Mass:
- 0.000 * 100 kg
- Volume:
- 0.00000 * 100 km3
- Density:
- g/cm3
- Absolute Magnitude: