US scientists discover 'new moon' around Pluto

Scientists in the US have announced on Wednesday the discovery of the smallest moon yet around the icy orb if Pluto, bringing the count of its known moons to five.

"We're not finished searching yet," said Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University, who thinks there may be more.

The discovery was made by a team of scientists who used the Hubble Space Telescope to scout out Pluto's neighborhood ahead of a NASA spacecraft that's scheduled to arrive in 2015.

The newfound moon, known as P5 until it gets a proper name, appeared as a faint fleck in the Hubble images.

Scientists estimated the mini-moon to be 9km to 24km across, smaller than the still nameless one that they spotted last year, which is 12km to 33km wide.