EARTHDATE: February 26, 2006

OFFICIAL NEWS
Page 9

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope spotted two previously unknown moons orbiting Pluto back in November, and now further observations have confirmed their existence. The more distantly orbiting of the new moons takes 38 Earth days to do a circuit of Pluto. It's got a diameter between 30 and 100 miles. This is about 22% larger than its fellow discovery, which takes 25 days to orbit the planet.

The two bodies have been given the boring catalog names S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2 but presumably someone will come up with something more snappy soon. They join the previously know moon of Pluto, Charon.

Whether the discovery of two new moons orbiting Pluto will help at all with the debate about whether it's really a planet or not, we'll have to wait and see.

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