New Moon for Jupiter Discovery, nicknamed "Oddball"

With 79 moons, Jupiter has by far the largest number of moons of any planet in our solar system. With the announcement of twelve new moons, eleven of them are clbadified as "normal" outer moons. The other moon, however, is much more unusual, winning the term "Oddball".

The moons were first cataloged in 2017 by astronomers, although it took another year for data to be confirmed and moons to be ratified internationally. The study that detected the moons was not deliberate; the aim was to search for objects at the farthest end of the solar system, to prove or refute the theory that there is a mbadive planet beyond Pluto. It could be a body the size of Neptune, but not seen yet.

Detecting moons around Jupiter is difficult. As the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter has a very large area of ​​influence, which means that there is considerable space where the moons could potentially be.

The moon & Oddball & # 39; must be officially called Valetudo, named after the great-granddaughter of the Roman god Jupiter. The reason why this Jovian object arouses such interest is that it has a prograde orbit that crosses retrograde orbits. With satellites, a retrograde orbit is an orbit where a satellite rotates in the opposite direction of rotation of its original body. Whereas, a prograde orbit is its opposite; here, a satellite rotates in the direction of rotation of the parent object.

The new moon is probably the smallest known moon of Jupiter, less than 1 kilometer in diameter. While other moons of Jupiter follow a prograde orbit, they are all inner moons. The newly discovered "Oddball" moon orbits further from Jupiter than the other moons of the larger prograde group. The moon takes about a year and a half from Earth to complete an orbit of the giant planet.

The discovery, which originates from the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union, is important given that studying the complex influences that have shaped the orbital history of a moon can potentially teach the scientists more about the early years of the solar system.