Curated playlist
Trans-Neptunian satellites
- S/2015 (136472) 1Makemake's only known moon sat in Hubble images for nearly a year before anyone announced it.
- Dysnomia (moon)Dysnomia, the moon of the dwarf planet Eris, reflects just 5% of sunlight. Eris itself bounces back 96%.
- Namaka (moon)Namaka, a small moon of the dwarf planet Haumea, may tumble unpredictably.
- Hiʻiaka (moon)Hiʻiaka, a moon of the dwarf planet Haumea, briefly went by the name Rudolph.
- Vanth (moon)Vanth, a moon of the dwarf planet Orcus, is heavy enough to pull Orcus off-center. They circle a shared point.
- Xiangliu (moon)Gonggong spins unusually slowly, so astronomers searched old Hubble images for a hidden moon. They found Xiangliu.
- Styx (moon)William Shatner's pick, Vulcan, won the vote to name a Pluto moon. Astronomers rejected it, so Styx got the name.
- Kerberos (moon)Astronomers hunting for rings around Pluto in 2011 found a new moon, Kerberos. It took eight-minute Hubble exposures.
- Nix (moon)Nix, a tiny moon of Pluto, can occasionally flip its entire axis. Its elongated shape feeds the chaotic tumbling.
- Hydra (moon)Pluto's moon Hydra tumbles sideways through space. Its axis was tilted roughly 110 degrees in July 2015.
- Charon (moon)In 1978, astronomer James Christy noticed Pluto looked stretched, and found its moon Charon.