A non-spherical moon of Pluto was found by the Hubble Space Telescope called Nix.Pluto’s moons are much stranger than any scientist could ever imagine. This dwarf planet of the Solar System has four small moons: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx. Amongst which Styx is the smallest Plutonian moon.On May 15, 2005, NASA astronomers discovered the Plutonian moon Nix along with the outermost moon namely Hydra. However, before this discovery, Pluto was believed to share its circular orbit with Charon’s orbit (Pluto’s large moon). But all thanks to the New Horizons mission which helped make discoveries. New Horizons was the first space probe to visit Pluto.New Horizons, United States space probe flew by the planet and Charon (large moon) in July 2005. The four small moons of Pluto were discovered by Pluto Companion Search Team.The Pluto system is believed to have formed by the collision between Pluto and a smaller size body of the Solar System. It is also believed that when the collision happened it fused into smaller moons orbiting this dwarf planet Pluto.What’s more surprising is, that, unlike the remaining moons, Nix is tilted on its axis by 132 degrees and rotates backward.Once you have finished reading Nix Moon why not check out more moons: Mimas moon and Miranda moon, here on Kidadl.Nix (Moon) Discovery‘It’s almost like a mini Solar System’, scientists said. Lately, so many darkest objects are being found that astronomers can’t agree on what to name or call them.Who would have imagined a member of the Kuiper Belt will be the only planet to have more than one companion? Scientists discovered the Nix and Hydra were first discovered after a 75 years discovery of the Pluto Charon system. Later, additional satellites were discovered namely Styx and Kerberos.Nix was first spotted on May 15, 2005, when NASA started with the New Horizons mission. It was the Search team at Hubble Space Telescope Pluto Companion who used the Hubble Space Telescope. Nix is the innermost of the two moons discovered orbiting Pluto’s circular orbits at that time.Nix and Hydra were independently discovered by Max J. Mutchler on June 15, 2005, and Andrew J. Steffl on August 15, 2005. However, it was presumed that it was formed debris ejected from a massive collision between Pluto and another celestial object.It was really difficult to find the discovery images of the Nix and Hydra as their brightness was about 5,000 times fainter than Pluto. Therefore, long exposure images were taken to discover its original size. And hence, on October 31, 2005, it was initially cataloged as S/2005 P 2.Later, the astronomers named it Greek name-Nix with the initial ‘N’ in the honor of the New Horizons. It was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of darkness and night and the mother of Charon, the ferryman of Hades in Greek mythology. The name was officially announced on June 21, 2006, under International Astronomical Union (IAU) guidance where it was designated as ‘Pluto II’.Nix (Moon) CompositionA non-spherical-shaped moon of Pluto- Nix has a long axis admeasuring 30.9 mi (49.7 km) across and a small axis of 19.3 mi (31.1 km) across. It follows the same orbital plane as Charon.Before the measurement of size, the initial Hubble image showed that Nix was reddish, unlike other moons. On contrary, other research says that it is spectacularly neutral and gray similar to all other moons of Pluto. It also represents that its surface has water ice present.The reddish discovery images of Nix from New Horizons are thought to be a large impact crater that was ejected from Nix’s ice water layer present underneath it and deposited on its surface.However, there is no specific reason for the color variation on it. Nevertheless, it is also said that Pluto Nix appears to be very bright and reflective. The reason behind the brightness fluctuations is caused by areas with different albedos on the surface features.Nix (Moon) FeaturesDirty snowballs, the name given to Nix and Hydra in terms of reflectivity. Few astronomers also say that it is so bright and reflective that if one lives on it will never know whether the sun is coming up tomorrow or not. However, it appears nothing in comparison to Pluto Charon which is 5,000 times brighter which orbits on the same plane.As with other Plutonian moons, this moon rotates in the backward direction which is mainly due to its oval kind of shape. Also, the Nix moon’s axial tilt as well as its day length is of short timescale which occasionally flips over.At the time of discovery, it was observed that Nix was rotating with an orbital period of 43.9 hours rearward to Pluto’s equator. However, the rotational rate of Nix has been increased 10 times since then.Nix (Moon) Distance From Earth And Surface GravityPluto system’s middle child- Nix is only 30.9 miles (49.8 km) wide its longest dimension. Nix’s mean diameter is 137 km (85.1 miles). However, the image taken by New Horizons was from a distance of approx. 231,000 km (144,000 mi).The dwarf planet Pluto and its moons are at a distance of 3269680676.7 mi (5,262,040,979 km), equivalent to 35.174571 astronomical units. In fact, if we wonder about the light of the Nix moon, it will take four hours, 52 minutes, and 32.2794 seconds to travel to us.The astronomers who discovered the Hydra Nix found out that Styx, Nix, and Hydra are interlinked by a ‘resonance’. Resonance is a kind of gravitational spot in which the orbit of several celestial bodies is related to each other by the ratio of two numbers. This gravitational spot relationship among Pluto’s small moons makes their orbit more predictable. This is the reason why despite being chaotic these Pluto’s moons do not crash into one another.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Nix (moon): know ever-so keen facts on Pluto’s moon for kids then why not take a look at where do eggs come from? what’s all about hens and their eggs? or where do earwigs come from? and easy ways to get rid of earwigs.
A non-spherical moon of Pluto was found by the Hubble Space Telescope called Nix.
