Astronomers report the discovery of one more moon of Uranus, while two more moons are found on Neptune.
The “moon” is a satellite that almost every planet in the solar system has. In particular, the outer planets have as many as tens or hundreds of moons.
Most recently on February 23, there was big news in the astronomy industry. When the International Astronomical Union’s Asteroid Center Officially announced that “Discovered three new moons” of Uranus and Neptune, including one moon of Uranus and two of Neptune.
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That would increase the number of ice giants’ moons. Uranus will have an additional 28 moons, and this is the first time an additional moon of Uranus has been found in more than 20 years. Neptune will have a total of 16 moons.
Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Science, lead author of the discovery team, said: “The three newly discovered moons are the faintest moons ever discovered around a giant planet. 2 icy stars using ground-based telescopes … We had to use special image processing to reveal such faint objects.”
For the newly discovered moon of Uranus, It is currently temporarily named S/2023 U1, from now on it will be named according to the original rules. Names of characters that appear in the works of William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope are used in the naming. like in the past There’s the moon named Juliet (the female protagonist from Romeo and Juliet) or Oberon (the King of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), for example.
S/2023 U1 is just 8 kilometers across, making it possibly the smallest moon in the solar system. (The current smallest moon is Mars’ Deimos, measuring 13 kilometers in size.) It takes a total of 680 days to orbit Uranus once.
S/2023 U1 was first discovered on Nov. 4, 2023 by Sheppard using the Magellan Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.
Sheppard followed up on his findings a month later, working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to determine the orbit of the newly discovered moon.
The two newly discovered Neptune moons were discovered in September 2021 and are now officially known as S/2002 N5 and S/2021 N1.
S/2002 N5 is approximately 23 kilometers across and takes nearly nine years to orbit Neptune. It is brighter than the moon S/2021 N1. If you look closely you will see that its code is 2002, which means that it has been observed since 2002 but has only recently been officially confirmed.
“When S/2002 N5’s orbit around Neptune was determined using surveys in 2021, 2022 and 2023, it was traced back to an object that had been spotted near Neptune in 2003, but which had since been lost. Before it was confirmed whether or not it actually orbited Neptune,” Sheppard explained.
Meanwhile, the S/2021 N1 is less bright. Makes it lighter and harder to notice. And it takes an exceptionally long time to observe. It is approximately 14 kilometers across and has an orbit of nearly 27 years.
Both moons will receive permanent names after Nereid, one of Poseidon’s 50 sea goddesses. God of the sea in Greek mythology. This is because Neptune is the Roman name of Poseidon.
Discovering the three new moons required astronomers to take dozens of 5-minute images over a continuous period of 3-4 hours each night. and adjust the shooting according to the movement of each planet before being combined to create a deeper picture
“Because the moon moves in only a few minutes relative to stars and galaxies, A single long observation is therefore not suitable for in-depth imaging of moving objects,” Sheppard said.
He added, “By superimposing these composite images, Stars and galaxies appear with the lines of their orbital paths behind them. And objects moving similar to that planet are seen as origins. Bring the moon out from behind the background noise in the image.”
The team of scientists also discovered that All three moons have elliptical orbits that are strongly inclined relative to the plane of the ice giants. which means These moons do not form around their parent planets. But it was an object from another place that was later held together by gravity.
Compiled from Carnegie Institution for Science / Space.com
