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The astronomers of the Carnegie Institution of Science observed the first ten jupiter satellites (and two other satellites already reported last June) in 2017. The fight The first observation of all 12 satellites was made by a Blanco telescope 4 meters in Chile, although the goal of astronomers was not to search for these satellites. Scientists were more interested in extremely distant and small objects (perhaps even the planets) which, on the very edge of the solar system, continue beyond Pluto. However, in search of these long-distance cosmic rocks, scientists inadvertently looked at what was happening to Jupiter. Then they observed that the satellites were seen more than once, their exact orbits calculated and received by the International Astronomical Union officially registering the cosmic bodies.
All these satellites are relatively small – from a diameter and a half to three kilometers in diameter. They can be divided into three different types. Two of them rotate closer to Jupiter and their direction of motion coincides with the direction of rotation of Jupiter. Next – 25 mln. Kilometers from the distance of Jupiter – there are nine other satellites that turn to Jupiter in the opposite direction. But among these other satellites, there is also a stranger, whom scientists have called Valdeo: he, like two internal satellites, turns in the direction of the movement of Jupiter. This means that it turns in the opposite direction of the orbit rather than other objects in its vicinity. "It's like driving a highway in front of the traffic lane.This situation is very unstable.It is very likely that it will end with a direct cactus," said Scott Shepard, who said: one of the satellite astronomers.
Finding satellites around Jupiter is a daunting task. The largest planet in the solar system has a very wide range of gravitational effects, and therefore the space that can have satellites around it is also very large. A simple telescope with a quick and easy look at this space is very difficult. "It's like watching a straw.The observer is just trying to look at as many points as possible about Jupiter," said the team leader. And since Jupiter is very large, it also reflects a large amount of light. This means that astronomers looking for satellites are also prevented by reflections.
Fortunately, the Blanco telescope used by scientists was precisely the ideal tool for such a mission. It has the largest chamber of any large-diameter land telescope and has allowed astronomers to see a larger area around Jupiter in a shorter time. In addition, the Blanco camera is suitable for filtering a lot of Jupiter reflections
For the same reason, Blanco is perfectly suited to the search for extremely distant black objects – that is why the researchers of the 39, Carnegie Institute have chosen for cosmic bodies then look for Pluto. In March of last year, carving under the sky, the researchers noticed that Jupiter was walking right on their path of observation. So they decided to shoot two rabbits at the same time: look at objects similar to those of Jupiter (possibly on the planet's satellites), and objects that move slowly, which should be on the edge of the solar system. After identifying 12 potential Jupiter satellites, scientists repeated their observations in different telescopes and confirmed their findings within a month and again in May of this year
S. Shepard is convinced that the new group of satellites speaks volumes about the planet's past. Scientists claim that nine satellites, moving in the same direction away from Jupiter, may actually be the remains of larger satellites that have collapsed for a long time. Some of the nine observable satellites were characterized by common anomalies, such as orbital angles, which, according to scientists, could be the wreckage of three larger satellites. "We think that at the beginning there were three mother bodies and that in some way each of them separated … Now the essential question is: who cut these objects? "- said S. Shepard. Possible answer from Valetudo. When a satellite is next, one can badume that there were a lot of direct collisions in this space, after which the space objects were crushed to the current size.
Astronomers discover that all these satellites are good news because they can be added A group of objects surrounding Jupiter that is rich in sunlight at dawn. Unlike Jupiter's larger internal satellites – such as Iowa and Europe – the new satellites are spinning away from the planet and are supposed to be made of the same material as the planet itself. . The globes of rock and dust probably circled the Sun during its formation, but instead of becoming planets, they were attracted by the powerful pull of Jupiter. That's right, it's hard to say exactly how it happened. "If we want to understand how Jupiter came, we have to answer the question of which environment has allowed him to catch his satellites? And how many such satellites have been attracted?" – said the astronomer at the University of Maryland Douglas Hamilton, who was not present in the recent study.
It is likely that more and more of Jupiter's fallout will be discovered in the future. And the more we find them, the more we learn how Jupiter has become a planet as we see it today. "What we are seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg The more we watch, the more satellites we find," Hamilton said.
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