Discovery of Styx, moon of Pluto
Descubrimiento de Estigia (Styx), satélite de Plutón
- Date
- 2012 · confidence high
- Place
- Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
- Credited to
- Mark Showalter and team (Hubble Space Telescope images)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
While searching for rings around Pluto ahead of the New Horizons flyby, a team led by Showalter found this fifth moon of the system with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3; it is the smallest and most irregularly shaped of the known ones.
It was informally called 'P5' until the IAU gave it the name Styx in 2013.
What it led to
- A complete map of Pluto's moons for New Horizons
- Confirmation of an orbital resonance chain among the minor moons