P5 was discovered a year later during a more intensive search for previously unseen objects orbiting the distant, dwarf planet.
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Mr. MIKE BROWN (California Institute of Technology): The largest dwarf planet, please.
Since being demoted from planet to dwarf planet in 2006 we've actually discovered two new moons orbiting the icy sun satellite.
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So NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which is due to fly by the dwarf planet in 2015, may have to watch its step.
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As with the rest of the dwarf planet's moons, the organization's asking that the names be associated with Hades (the underworld), with ties to Greek or Roman mythology.
The probe, which launched in 2007, reached Vesta a few weeks ago, and will be spending about a year there before it departs on its three year journey to the dwarf planet Ceres, also located in the asteroid belt.
The discovery of another moon around Pluto is exciting news for planetary science, but it's also likely causing some anxiety for the team in charge of New Horizons, a spacecraft set to be the first probe ever to visit the dwarf planet.
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However, the researchers believe that a survey of 500 or so dwarf stars could discover such a planet.
If the new object were a captured alien, it could give astronomers their first good look at an extra-solar planet, or a brown dwarf if that is what it turns out to be.
The planet orbits its host star, or brown dwarf, with an orbital radius similar to that of Venus.
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