Newscenter Update: Hubble Finds Two Chaotically Tumbling Pluto Moons

June 3, 2015 Artists' concept Get larger image formats   Find the entire Hubble News archive, image galleries, and much more at hubblesite.org Stay Connected   Hubble Finds Two Chaotically Tumbling Pluto Moons Two of the most reliable changes in the sky are the daily rising of the sun in the east and setting of the sun in the west. But if you lived on a couple of Pluto's moons you wouldn't know when the day would begin, or even what direction the sun would rise. That's because, unlike Earth's moon, at least two of Pluto's small moons, Hydra and Nix, are tumbling chaotically through space. Why? Because they orbit inside a dynamically shifting gravitational field caused by the system's two central bodies, Pluto and Charon, that are whirling around each other. The moons are also football shaped, and this contributes to the chaotic rotation. Please join this week's Hubble Hangout at 3pm EDT on Thurs., June 4, to learn about these exciting Hubble findings in anticipation of the NASA New Horizons spacecraft flyby of Pluto in July 2015. To join, visit http://hbbl.us/y6E . Kids can read a junior version of this story in the Star Witness, a science newspaper available on our sister site, Amazing Space. RELEASE LINKS: See full release More Images Video Fast Facts This news release and its supporting materials are permanently achived at: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/24/ You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to the Inbox Astronomy mailing list, which sends notices in HTML whenever there is a new Hubble Space Telescope image, product, or news update. If you would like to unsubscribe or change your email preferences, please go to: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/hubble_on_the_go/inbox_astronomy/