Astronomers have discovered two small moons orbiting Neptune and another orbiting Uranus, bringing the number of known moons to 16 and 28, respectively.
Uranus' new moon, the first moon discovered around the ice giant in more than two decades and perhaps the smallest of its kind, is only 5 miles (8 kilometers) across; It takes 680 days to complete one orbit around Uranus. In comparison, one of Mars's moons called Deimos, which is one of the smallest known moons in our solar system, is 8 miles (13 km) across.
The blue-green planet's new moon is currently referred to as “S/2023 U1” while it is expected to be named after a Shakespearean character, according to a report published by the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. statement By the Carnegie Foundation for Science (or Carnegie Science).
The brighter of Neptune's two new moons has been provisionally named S/2002 N5. This newly discovered satellite, 14 miles (23 km) across, appears to be in a 9-year orbit around Neptune. The dim moon, currently named S/2021 N1, is 8.6 miles (14 km) across and orbits Neptune once every 27 years. Both moons of Neptune will be assigned permanent names based on the sea gods and nymphs of Greek mythology.
Related: Uranus and Neptune are actually similar blue colors, as “true” color photographs reveal.
The three new satellites were announced on Friday (February 23) by the International Astronomical Union Minor planet centerIt is a Massachusetts-based scientific body responsible for identifying planets, comets and moons in our solar system.
The discovery was made using observatories in Hawaii and Chile by Scott Sheppard, a scientist at the Carnegie Science Center, in collaboration with Marina Brozovic and Bob Jacobson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), David Thulin of the University of Hawaii, and Chad Trujillo of Northern. University of Arizona and Patrick Sofia Lekawa of Kindai University.
Sheppard said in a statement on Friday that the new moons are “the faintest ever seen around these two icy giant planets using ground-based telescopes.” “It required special image processing to reveal such faint objects.”
The new moon of Uranus was first discovered in November last year while using the Chilean Magellan telescopes. A month later, subsequent observations along with JPL scientists' predictions about a possible orbit for the new moon confirmed the discovery.
The two new objects in Neptune's moon system were first seen in September 2021. After confirmation of the orbit of the brighter of the two natural moons, S/2002 N5, it was “referenced to an object observed near Neptune in 2003.” “But it was lost before it was confirmed that it was orbiting the planet,” Sheppard said.
Determining the orbit of Neptune's faint moon “requires special observation time under very primitive conditions” using the European Very Large Telescope in Chile and the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii, the statement said.
Using these telescopes, Sheppard and his colleagues captured a series of five-minute exposures over a period of three to four hours. These short-burst images were later “layered” so that the three newly discovered moons became clearer.
All three moons have egg-shaped orbits strongly inclined to the level of their ice giants. This means that they were not born around their host planet, but instead were captured by gravity later on.
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