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News and Views
Nature 439, 924-925 (23 February 2006) | doi:10.1038/439924a; Published online 22 February 2006
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Chair, Department of Informatic Medicine and Personalized Health
- University of Missouri-Kansas City
- Kansas City, Missouri, USA
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- Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies
- Port St. Lucie, FL
Planetary science: Pluto's expanding brood
Richard P. Binzel1
Abstract
Pluto is no lone ranger in the farthest expanses of the Solar System — its travelling companions now number three. And if Pluto can have so many, why shouldn't other objects in the distant, icy Kuiper belt?
Once thought to be a solitary denizen of the outer reaches of the Solar System, Pluto — which piqued our curiosity in 1978 with the discovery of its large satellite, Charon1 — is becoming ever more intriguing. In fact, the relative sizes of Pluto and Charon (Charon's diameter of around 1,200 kilometres is just over half that of Pluto's) means they are a 'double planet', orbiting a mutual centre of gravity, or barycentre, outside the surface of Pluto.
- Richard P. Binzel is in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Email: rpb@mit.edu
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