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24 April 2024

New but tiny moon found circling distant Pluto

Nasa impression of Pluto and its moons (Nasa)

Published
By AP

Distant and tiny Pluto has been hiding something from Earth: another moon.

Nasa announced Wednesday that the Hubble Space Telescope has found a fourth moon circling Pluto, which had been demoted from full planet to dwarf planet. Astronomers had been looking to see if Pluto had a ring, but instead they found another object circling the dwarf planet that is 3 billion miles (4.8 billion kilometers) from Earth.

But it is a mini-moon. It is only eight to 21 miles (33 kilometers) wide. Pluto's biggest moon, Charon, is 80 times bigger. The other two moons are Nix and Hydra.

Until astronomers decide a name, this moon is called P4.