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Moons “Dance” Around Pluto
In a very touching gesture， the New Horizons probe is carrying the ashes of Pluto’s discoverer， American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh注3. In the canister[小罐] with the ashes is an inscription[题词] from Alan Stern， the head of the New Horizons mission： “Interned[被拘禁的] herein[于此] are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh， discoverer of Pluto and the solar system’s ‘third zone.’ Adelle and Muron’s boy， Patricia’s husband， Annette and Alden’s father， astronomer， teacher， punster， and friend： Clyde W. Tombaugh （1906-1997）.”
Tombaugh will continue his trip aboard New Horizons， crossing into a new frontier of the solar system beyond Pluto， carrying humanity’s hopes and aspirations with him.
There’s a chaotic[混乱的] dance going on at the far end of our solar system. It involves Pluto and five of its closest friends， a study finds.
Hubble Space Telescope images[图像] of Pluto， its largest moon Charon and tinier moons Styx， Nix， Hydra and Kerberos注1 show the odd movements of these six distant objects. It’s like a dance. But it is unlike anything in our solar system to date[迄今为止].
What makes it so odd is that there’re two sets of dances going on. First， Pluto and Charon are locked together in their own waltz. It is “as if they are a dumbbell[哑铃]” with a rod connecting them， this according to study author Mark Showalter of the SETI注2 Institute in California. It’s the solar system’s only binary[具有两个的] planet system.
“It’s pretty darn[=damn] weird，” Showalter said.
But Pluto and Charon aren’t alone. And that’s where it gets more complicated.
The four little moons circle the Pluto-Charon combo[联合体]. They wobble[摇摆] a bit when they go closer to either Pluto or Charon. They are being pushed and pulled by the two bigger objects.
Those four moons orbit[绕……轨道而行] Pluto-Charon in a precise rhythmic[有节奏的] way. But there is a twist[扭转]. They also interact[互相作用] when they near each other. So it seems like they all dance to one overall beat， but not quite in the same way. They are just doing their own thing， said planetary[行星的] scientist Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.
“It’s kind of like you’d see at a Grateful Dead注3 concert，” Hammel said. She wasn’t part of the study， but she praised it as giving us a glimpse of what might be happening in other distant star systems， where there are two stars and planets that revolve around them. It is like the mythical[虛构的] Star Wars world of Tatooine注4.
In a very touching gesture， the New Horizons probe is carrying the ashes of Pluto’s discoverer， American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh注3. In the canister[小罐] with the ashes is an inscription[题词] from Alan Stern， the head of the New Horizons mission： “Interned[被拘禁的] herein[于此] are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh， discoverer of Pluto and the solar system’s ‘third zone.’ Adelle and Muron’s boy， Patricia’s husband， Annette and Alden’s father， astronomer， teacher， punster， and friend： Clyde W. Tombaugh （1906-1997）.”
Tombaugh will continue his trip aboard New Horizons， crossing into a new frontier of the solar system beyond Pluto， carrying humanity’s hopes and aspirations with him.
There’s a chaotic[混乱的] dance going on at the far end of our solar system. It involves Pluto and five of its closest friends， a study finds.
Hubble Space Telescope images[图像] of Pluto， its largest moon Charon and tinier moons Styx， Nix， Hydra and Kerberos注1 show the odd movements of these six distant objects. It’s like a dance. But it is unlike anything in our solar system to date[迄今为止].
What makes it so odd is that there’re two sets of dances going on. First， Pluto and Charon are locked together in their own waltz. It is “as if they are a dumbbell[哑铃]” with a rod connecting them， this according to study author Mark Showalter of the SETI注2 Institute in California. It’s the solar system’s only binary[具有两个的] planet system.
“It’s pretty darn[=damn] weird，” Showalter said.
But Pluto and Charon aren’t alone. And that’s where it gets more complicated.
The four little moons circle the Pluto-Charon combo[联合体]. They wobble[摇摆] a bit when they go closer to either Pluto or Charon. They are being pushed and pulled by the two bigger objects.
Those four moons orbit[绕……轨道而行] Pluto-Charon in a precise rhythmic[有节奏的] way. But there is a twist[扭转]. They also interact[互相作用] when they near each other. So it seems like they all dance to one overall beat， but not quite in the same way. They are just doing their own thing， said planetary[行星的] scientist Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.
“It’s kind of like you’d see at a Grateful Dead注3 concert，” Hammel said. She wasn’t part of the study， but she praised it as giving us a glimpse of what might be happening in other distant star systems， where there are two stars and planets that revolve around them. It is like the mythical[虛构的] Star Wars world of Tatooine注4.