Pluto is no longer classified as a planet, it’s a dwarf planet, however, it still has five moons. Now astronomers say they have detected CO2 and other compounds on one of its moons for the first time ever.
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00:00Pluto is no longer classified as a planet, it's a dwarf planet, only 1477 miles in diameter.
00:11However, it still has 5 moons and one of them, Charon, is 754 miles across.
00:16This has caused both the moon and the dwarf planet to enter into a binary orbit, or where
00:21rather than the moon being the lone orbiter, they sort of orbit each other around a single
00:25point in space.
00:26In fact, it is this very reason that Pluto is no longer classified as a planet.
00:30And things just got weirder for Charon as well, as astronomers say they have just detected
00:34carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide there for the first time.
00:38Experts say that in the far reaches of the solar system beyond Neptune, most objects
00:42are composed of nitrogen and methane ice.
00:45The CO2 in Charon is believed to have come from deep within it, and the detection was
00:48only possible from asteroids slamming into the moon and exposing it.
00:52Still, astronomers continue to be baffled as to how the moon formed in the first place.
00:56Experts have theorized that it came into existence the same way our moon did, from a large object
01:01slamming into it with the material that was jettisoned away, eventually coalescing into
01:05an orbiting body.
01:07Still questions remain about our solar system's furthest, mysterious orbiters.