Pluto’s Expanding Brood

2 newer moons:

Nix and Hydra

Weaver, et al. (2006), Nature, 439, 943–945

Hubble Space Telescope images

Occultation of an 11th mag star by Nix, March 3/4, 2009Information from Thomas Widemann and Bruno Sicardy

• Air Force AEOS, 3.7 m, Haleakala; problems with funding

• Windward CC, 16”, Oahu; clouded up (Tholen, Ciotti, Kessler, G. Elliott)

• PanSTARRS, Haleakala; weather problem

• IRTF, 3 m, Mauna Kea our POETS; cloudy (Amanda Gulbis)

• CFHT, 3.6 m, Mauna Kea; cloudy (T. Widemann, B. Sicardy, C. Veillet)

• Faulkes, 2 m, Haleakala; patchy (T. Lister in liaison with J. Pasachoff)

credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU/APL), A. Stern (then SwRI), and the HST Pluto Companion Search Team; 15 February 2006, Hubble ACS/HRC

Sicardy and Widemann's prediction

Predicted occultation by Nix, March 3/4

607 s streak, 13:48:48–13:58:55