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Jupiter's family grew by 12 new moons. A large family that now has 79 members. A discovery made somewhat by chance and which highlights three groups of satellites.
A little more than four centuries after the discovery by Galileo of four moons moving around Jupiter (the Galilean moons Io Europe, Ganymede and Callisto), 12 small bodies are added to the already very large family of satellites that surround the giant. This brings now to 79 the number of moons that revolve around it. A record for our Solar System . No other planet can claim to have so much (at least for the moment). No wonder that, you would say, that the lecherous Zeus-Jupiter is so much and so well surrounded … All these satellites indeed bear names of the conquests of the god of lightning (to the dismay of Hera-Junon) . Almost all of them were companions and companions for one evening (or more). And the list continues to grow.
A moon unlike any other
What will be the name of the members just discovered? Scott S. Sheppard and his team already have a suggestion for the weirdest of them: they would like to name it Valetudo (Hygie in Greek). Daughter of Asclepius-Aesculapius, she is the goddess of health and hygiene, often represented with a snake. Researchers have also nicknamed oddball "eccentric" in French, by its physical characteristics and behavior.
"[C’] is a real eccentric ball that has an orbit in astronomy
In astronomy, the orbit designates the closed trajectory followed by a celestial body around another celestial body periodically, under the influence of the … "data-image =" https: //fr.cdn .v5.futura-sciences.com / buildsv6 / images / midioriginal / 9/2 / e / 92eefd02ac_49145_iss-earth-sun-nasa-s-marshall-space-flight-center-flickr-cc-nc-20.jpg "data -url = "/ sciences / definitions / universe-orbit-873 /" data-more = "Read more"> orbit like no other known Jovian moon explains its discoverer. C is probably the smallest known moon of Jupiter measuring less than one kilometer in diameter " This moon is the farthest of the three progrades – that is, e that orbit in the same sense as Jupiter – newly discovered (the other nine are retrograde). It takes him a year and a half to go around the gas giant. A path however fraught with obstacles because it crosses the roads of the nine retrograde satellites, thus risking regular collisions with the other family. "It's an unstable situation. The frontal collisions would break them quickly and reduce the objects to dust. "
For the dozen satellites discovered, the researchers identified three large families that are distinguished by their orbital characteristics. The two prograde moons, the eccentric moon and the nine retrograde moons. These are subdivided into three groups. The team also wonders if one or more of these groups were not born from the violent encounter with a larger satellite prograde. Valetudo is somehow the last survivor (other fragments may remain to be discovered). It is a little Jupiter's granddaughter, and that is probably why they would like to call it Valetudo (Jupiter's great-granddaughter).
Orbits of the 12 moons discovered around Jupiter . They measure between 1 and 3 km in diameter. © Carnegie Science
An Accidental Discovery
Discovering new satellites around Jupiter was not really on the agenda of Scott S. Sheppard and his team of Chad Trujillo and Dave Tholen. In fact, in spring 2017, they skimmed the heavens towards the Virgin in search of the Planet 9 – they were the first, in 2014, to propose the hypothesis of its existence. And at that time, the largest planet in the Solar System was in the same field sifted with the four-meter Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo (Chile). A part of the small luminous points were thus noticed by their movements which accompany that of Jupiter. It took a year later to confirm, via various other telescopes the existence of small moons flown out.
A court that is growing for Jupiter but it is probably not the only giant to have who are still hiding. Saturn, Uranus and Neptune could reveal more to us.
Jupiter: 6 more moons discovered in 2003
Article of Orbitmars published on April 10, 2003
David Jewitt and Scott Sheppard of the University of Hawaii and Jan Kleyna of Cambridge University announced last Friday the discovery of six new natural satellites of the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter.
This discovery results from the use of the two largest digital cameras in the world, which equip the Subaru telescopes (8.30m in diameter) and Canada-France-Hawaii (3.60m in diameter) of the astronomical complex located at the top of Mauna Kea, 4,200 meters high
With a diameter of less than 2 km, these satellites run several tens of millions of kilometers from the planet and follow a retrograde orbit, which seems to indicate that they are boulders captured in the gravitational field Jovian probably contemporaneous with the formation of the Solar System
This discovery brings to 58 the total number of known natural satellites of the planet Jupiter.
18 new Jovian satellites were discovered in this year 2003. The first 7 were officially announced by the Union's circular 8088 of 6 March … "data-url =" / sciences / definitions / univers-union-astronomique-internationale-4530 / "data-more =" Read more "> International Astronomical Union (UAI), the numbers 9 to 12 by circular 8089 of March 7 and the latest will be announced this month.
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