New Twin Moons for Jupiter
July 2nd 2011 21:25
Category: Jupiter
Cassini spacecraft image of distant moon Himalia taken at a distance of 4.4 million km NASA / JPL / Univ. of Arizona
How many moons can a planet have?
I guess the response would be “as many as it wants”
The gas giant Jupiter boast some 65 known moons seems that two more have been added to the list.
The newly discovered moonlets are designated S/2010 J1 and S/2010 J2. (Not very exciting names) confirmed after a second group of images were taken shortly after being discovered in 2010 using the 5-m Hale Telescope in California.
These two particular moons are very small in fact tiny, S/2010 J1 is just 2 km across both moonlets are extremely faint. S/2010 J2 is half that size of the other.
Both moons orbit the planet with irregular orbits that are highly inclined. The two newly discovered moons take very eccentric tracks that carry them around in the opposite direction to Jupiter’s rotation, both moons can cross the paths of other major moons also in orbit around Jupiter.
Most of Jupiter's distant moons are too distant to be seen even by passing spacecraft on-route to other destinations. A pixilated view of Himalia, perhaps the brightest moons and one of the most distant moon’s of Jupiter was imaged by Cassini orbiter on 2000, from 2.7 million miles (4.4 million km) away.
These outer most moon or moonlets were captured by Jupiter’s gravity eons ago while the object were in transit. These moons may have been part of a larger group perhaps fragment belonging to large asteroids that collided and fragmented. It is expected that S/2010 J1 and S/2010 J2 will be re named sometime in the future and may have exotic Greek or Latin origins.
For the time being Jupiter's moon count has surpassed Saturn.
| 55 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by CMoreStars
Astroearth
Camera Sense
The odds of collision both past and present are high an even though the distances of the relative moons are somewhat scattered.
Jupiter’s 4 biggest moons tend orbit closer to the planet than the others, as you mentioned it is just a matter of time.