The Solar System - Word Search - PUZZLE #37 HYDRA - August 2025

PUZZLE #37 - HYDRA 

IN-CONTEXT WORD DEFINITIONS

Outermost: Hydra is the outermost known moon of Pluto, orbiting at the greatest distance from the dwarf planet compared to Styx, Nix, and Kerberos.

Reflective: Hydra is highly reflective, meaning its surface reflects a significant portion of the sunlight that hits it. This high albedo is likely due to the presence of relatively clean water ice.

Kuiper Belt: The Kuiper Belt is a region of icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit, where Pluto and its moons reside. Hydra's composition and presence in this region are consistent with it having originated from or been formed within the Kuiper Belt.

Collision: Scientists believe that Pluto's system of small moons, including Hydra, likely formed from the debris ejected during a massive collision between Pluto and another large Kuiper Belt Object billions of years ago.

Debris: In the context of Hydra, "debris" refers to the fragments and smaller pieces of rock and ice that resulted from the ancient collision that formed the Pluto system. Hydra is thought to have accreted from this debris.

Charon: Charon is Pluto's largest moon, forming a binary system with Pluto. Hydra's orbit is influenced by the combined gravitational pull of Pluto and Charon.

Nix: Nix is another of Pluto's small moons, orbiting closer to Pluto than Hydra. Hydra is in an orbital resonance with Nix and Styx, meaning their orbital periods are mathematically related.

Mythology: Hydra is named after the nine-headed serpent from Greek and Roman mythology. This aligns with the tradition of naming Pluto's celestial bodies after figures associated with the underworld.

Hydrian: This term would be an adjective used to describe something related to Hydra, Pluto's moon, in a similar way that "Martian" describes something related to Mars. For example, "Hydrian surface features" would refer to features found on Hydra's surface.

Secret Word: This refers to the mythological creature after which Hydra is named. This multi-headed reptilian symbolizes the moon's complex orbital behavior and multiple influences within the Pluto-Charon system.