New Horizons photographed satellites of Pluto Nikta and Hydra

The interplanetary station New Horizons will come as close as possible to Pluto in July 2015, but the LORRI telescope, which the station is equipped with, began to take pictures as early as January. From January 27 to February 8, the station took a series of photographs from a distance of more than 186 million kilometers, in which Nikta and Hydra, the satellites of a dwarf planet, are visible.



Pluto was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombo in 1930. It is located in the Kuiper belt , along with two other dwarf planets, Haumea and Makemake.

Pluto has five moons: Charon, Hydra, Nikta, Kerber and Styx. Nyx and Hydra were discovered in June 2005 with the Hubble telescope . The satellites are in a circular orbit in the same plane as Charon. The diameter of the Hydra is from 52 to 160 km, the Nykts from 32 to 145 km. Their circulation period is 38 and 25 days, respectively.
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New Horizons made a series of photographs in the period from January 27 to February 8 using the LORRI camera from a distance of 201 million to 186 million kilometers. The satellite Hydra is shown in yellow in the photo, and Nyxta in orange. Each frame is composed of five ten-second images taken with a long exposure. The photos on the right were processed - the glare from Pluto and Charon and some stars in the background were removed.