Pluto's Moons Football-Shaped Chaotic Sytems, Hubble Tells NASA

Hubble Telescope observations of Pluto's moons revealed they are chaotic systems that move erratically.

Data analysis showed that the moons Nix and Hydra wobble unpredictably to such an extent that it would be difficult to say in which direction the sun would rise standing on one of these moons. The wobble is being attributed to the combined gravitational effect that Pluto and its largest moon Charon exert on the planet's other moons. Pluto and Charon have been labeled a double-planet system.

NASA further said in a press release that the wobbling effect is compounded by the football like shapes of the moons.

"Prior to the Hubble observations, nobody appreciated the intricate dynamics of the Pluto system. Our research provides important new constraints on the sequence of events that led to the formation of the system," said Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in California who analyzed the Hubble data.

It was also found that the moon Kerberos is a dark charcoal body when other moons are frozen and bright. Astronomers are unable to explain the anomaly that Kerberos is.

NASA hopes to get a better understanding of the planet and its moons when its New Horizons spacecraft flies by in July. "Pluto will continue to surprise us when New Horizons flies past it in July. Our work with the Hubble telescope just gives us a foretaste of what's in store," Showalter said.