Though it is the New Horizons spacecraft closing in on Pluto and its moons, the Hubble Telescope recently delivered new data on their relationship with each other.
According to BBC News, Hubble spotted Pluto's four smaller moons from an astonishing distance of five billion kilometers, though they appeared as small flecks of light. The way the moons orbit Pluto puzzled astronomers, whose study was published in the journal Nature.
"Hubble has provided a new view of Pluto and its moons revealing a cosmic dance with a chaotic rhythm," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a statement. "When the New Horizons spacecraft flies through the Pluto system in July we'll get a chance to see what these moons look like up close and personal."
The New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at Pluto on July 14 and will get a good look at Charon, the planet's largest moon as well as the littler ones: Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.
Study co-author Mark Showalter, of the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence Institute, described the odd orbits of the smaller moons from the perspective of someone who would be standing on their surfaces.
"If you can imagine what it would be like to live on [these moons], you would literally not know where the Sun was coming up tomorrow," he told BBC News. "The Sun might rise in the west and set in the east. The Sun might rise in the west and set in the north for that matter.
"In fact, if you had real estate on the North Pole... you might discover one day you're on the south pole."
