Abstract
Abstract During 2005–2012, images from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealed four moons orbiting Pluto–Charon. Although their orbits and geometric shapes are well-known, the 2σ uncertainties in the masses of the two largest satellites—Nix and Hydra—are comparable to their HST masses. Remarkably, gravitational n-body computer calculations of the long-term system stability on 0.1–1 Gyr timescales place much tighter constraints on the masses of Nix and Hydra, with upper limits ∼10% larger than the HST mass. Constraints on the mass density using size measurements from New Horizons suggest Nix and Hydra formed in icier material than Pluto and Charon.
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