HUBBLE CONFIRMS NEW MOONS OF PLUTO (STScI-PRC06-09)

EMBARGOED UNTIL: 1:00 pm (EST) February 22, 2006

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC06-09

HUBBLE CONFIRMS NEW MOONS OF PLUTO

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed
the presence of two new moons around the distant planet Pluto.
The moons were first discovered by Hubble in May 2005, but the
Pluto Companion Search team probed even deeper into the Pluto
system with Hubble on Feb. 15 to look for additional satellites
and to characterize the orbits of the moons. In the image, Pluto
is in the center and Charon is just below it. The moons,
provisionally designated S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2, are located to
the right of Pluto and Charon. The initial discovery is being reported
today in this week's edition of the British science journal Nature.

Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics
Laboratory), A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute) and the HST Pluto
Companion Search Team

For images and additional information about this research on the Web,
visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2006/09
http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pre...006/060222.asp
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/recent/

For more information, contact:
Donna Weaver, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.,
(phone) 410-338-4993, (e-mail) or

Hal Weaver, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
Laurel, Md., (phone) 443-778-8078, (e-mail) .

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation
between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science
Institute in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. The Institute
is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in
Astronomy, Inc., Washington.

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