When the Dutch Hans Lippershey designed his first tube with lenses, it was unimaginable that this invention could go that far. A Tuscan astronomer, Galileo Galilei decided to take one of these telescopes and aim at the moon. There, he observed mountains and craters similar to those we can find on Earth.

Not happy, in 1610 he discovered four Jupiter's moons that revolved around the largest planet in the solar system. Four years later, his German colleague Simon Marius – who made similar observations – named the newly discovered objects with the names of io Europa Ganymede and Callisto .

The discovery of the Galilean satellites known as supported the ideas of Nicolaus Copernicus who argued that the planets The Earth revolved around the Sun. Since then, scientists have continued to observe Jupiter – thanks to missions like Juno – discovering that around them turn 67 moons . The planet is the world of the solar system that has the largest number of satellites

A team of astronomers from the Carnegie Institute found a dozen new Jupiter's moons including a oddball which received the name of Valetudo . The name refers to the great-granddaughter of god Jupiter who, according to clbadical mythology, was the goddess of health and hygiene. His discovery extends the total number of Jupiterian satellites to 79 moons reaching a record number.

Twelve New Jupiterian Satellites

The Group of Scott S. Sheppard Who in the Past He Jumped to the Media for the Hypothetical Search Ninth Planet from the solar system, he pursues objects far removed from our cosmic neighborhood for years. A few months ago, while they were trying to find the mysterious world baptized Phattie they detected a series of satellites revolving around Jupiter that had never seen before . "Our study takes two images of the same place in the sky near Jupiter separated by a few hours, then we look for objects that moved between the two photographs," says the astronomer at Hypertext by E-mail. 19659010] There are twelve new small and weak moons, of a size of only a few kilometers, among which the satellite Valetudo

which captured two photographs in an interval of one or two hours and were successful to directly detect a series of celestial bodies moving at the known speed of Jupiter . The reason these satellites had not been observed before, he says, is because they are objects "smaller and weaker" than previous surveys did. had not been able to capture. All celestial bodies are in the outer orbits of the gas giant.

The use of a powerful camera – called Dark Energy Camera and installed in the Chilean telescope. Víctor Blanco – allowed us to represent these new moons of Jupiter. After the initial discovery in 2017, another researcher from the Center for Minor Planets of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) calculated their orbits to confirm the discovery.

discoveries have a size of of only a few kilometers and, according to astronomers, it is possible that there are more than a hundred moons turning around this gaseous planet of dimensions equal to or greater than one kilometer. The enormous gravitational pull of Jupiter explains that this world is capable of capturing so many objects that are in its vicinity, says Sheppard at Hipertextual . His team, which discovered among other things a true satellite kamikaze aims to observe other planets in our environment to detect moons that could not be observed at this day, thanks to the possibilities offered by the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory located in Chile

Valetudo, a "kamikaze" moon on Jupiter

"Valetudo, it is like driving on the wrong side of the road, "says Sheppard. The satellite travels as a result of an extended movement that is to say in the opposite direction to the rest of the moons of Jupiter, which revolves around her. with a retrograde movement . For this reason, according to the researcher, "frontal collisions are likely". In fact, scientists believe that this moon could collide with one of the retrograde satellites in the past, which has made it "the last vestige of a much larger moon [anterior] ] ".

"Collisions occur, but on a human scale they do not occur, but at a time scale as the solar system.It goes in the opposite direction to that of the retrograde objects, it is possible that it collides with one of them about every billion d & rsquo; "explains Sheppard

A much shorter period than age presents its own solar system born 4,500 million years ago. is not likely to see a possible accident of Valetudo in space, the fact is that the collisions of this type of satellite kamikaze normally "create more than moons due to the large fragments detached from the original body, which give birth to new celestial objects, "concludes the astronomer.