I was pleased to read Scott Dance's report on the New Horizons spacecraft's impending encounter with Pluto ("New Horizons mission nearing Pluto after nine years in space," Dec. 1).
The latest space news often gets little attention, so it was nice to see The Sun story, especially given the project's connection to Johns Hopkins.
Mr. Dance's article, however, contained a factual error about the moons of Pluto. Kerberos and Styx were not discovered in 2005. They were discovered in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Two other small moons of Pluto, Nix and Hydra, were discovered courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005. My source is solarsystem.nasa.gov.
Even when little errors in reporting crop up, it's still great to see science news get its due in the press. Projects like New Horizons demonstrate the great feats that human beings are capable of when they put their minds to pursuits more noble than the latest fight over e-cigarettes or plastic bags.
Lawrence W. McMahon, Baltimore