Another discovery in space that will generate a lot of analysis and questions.
Astronomers have discovered three previously unknown moons around Uranus and Neptune, the most distant planets in our solar system. The find includes one moon spotted orbiting Uranus — the first such discovery in more than 20 years — and two found orbiting Neptune, CNN reported.
“The three newly discovered moons are the faintest ever detected around these two ice giant planets using ground-based telescopes. Special image processing is needed to detect such faint objects,” said Scott S. Shepherd, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
The findings will be useful for missions that may be planned to study Uranus and Neptune more closely in the future – a priority for astronomers since the icy planets were only observed in detail by Voyager 2 in the 1980s.
The newly discovered Uranus moon is the 28th observed orbiting the ice giant, and is likely the smallest, at 8 km in diameter. The moon, called S/2023 U1, takes 680 Earth days to orbit the planet. In the future, the small moon will be named after a Shakespearean character, in keeping with the tradition of Uranus’ moons bearing literary names.
Finding the three moons required dozens of short five-minute exposures over three or four hours on different nights.
#Scientists #amazed #moons
