Images from the Hubble Telescope indicate that the planet Pluto has three moons, not just one as previously believed.
The first moon, called Charon, was discovered in 1978. The two newly discovered moons are further away than Charon and much fainter when viewed from earth. Hubble first discovered them this past May.
'Pluto and Charon are not alone, they have two neighbors,' Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory told the Associated Press.
Additional observations to confirm the presence of the two new satellites are scheduled for February. If the data is confirmed, scientists will choose names for the two newly discovered moons.
Astronomers estimate that the two new moons are between 30 and 100 miles across. The difference is due to the fact that scientists are not sure how reflective the moons are at this time.
Debate continues among astronomers as to whether or not Pluto is actually a planet. It is located in the Kuiper Belt and is the farthest planet from the sun.
Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado said that having more moons may lend support to Pluto's planetary status. ''Just on a visceral level, the fact that Pluto has a whole suite of companions will make some people feel better,' Stern said.
