Mentari Puspadini, CNBC Indonesia
Tech
Saturday, 02/24/2024 18:45 IWST
Photo: Planet Neptune. (AP/)
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Astronomers have discovered three new, previously unknown moons in our solar system. Two of them surround Neptune and one moon around Uranus.
Launch AP Newsthese new small moons were spotted using powerful ground-based telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, and were announced on Friday, (23/2/2024) by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center.
“The latest calculations place Neptune as the 16th known moon and Uranus as the 28th moon,” as reported in the report, Saturday, (24/2/2024).
One of Neptune’s new moons has the longest known orbital journey. It would take the tiny outer moon about 27 years to complete one rotation around Neptune, the icy planet farthest from the sun, said Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington who helped make the discovery.
According to space.com, scientists first detected the new moon Uranus in November last year when using the Chilean Magellan telescope. A month later, follow-up observations combined with JPL scientists’ predictions of the new moon’s likely orbit confirmed the findings.
Two new residents of Neptune’s moon system were first spotted in September 2021. After the orbit of the brighter of the two natural satellites, S/2002 N5, was confirmed, “it was traced back to an object seen near Neptune in 2003 but lost before it can be confirmed to be orbiting the planet,” said Sheppard.
Determining the orbit of Neptune’s fainter moon “required dedicated observing time in ultra-pure conditions” with the European Very Large Telescope in Chile and the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, according to the statement.
Using this telescope, Sheppard and his colleagues took a series of five-minute exposures over a three- to four-hour period. These short burst images were then “overlaid” in such a way that the three newly discovered moons could be seen more clearly.
All three moons have egg-shaped orbits that are heavily tilted towards the plane of their respective ice giants. This means that they are not born around the planet where they live, but are captured by gravity at a later date.
Watch the video below:
Video: Data Center Steps to Prevent Cyber Attacks and Earthquake Threats
(hsy/hsy)
2024-02-24 11:45:01
#Astronomers #Find #Moons #Neptune #Uranus