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Sheppard could not tell if these points of light were really moons, at least not right away. To determine if something is actually a moon, astronomers must follow the object for about a year to determine that, yes, its movements are governed by the gravitational tug of a planet. Sheppard says that he could not be excited about his seriously until he observed the objects a year later, last spring, and his suspicions were confirmed.
Due to their small size, the composition of the moons is difficult to discern. For powerful telescopes on Earth, they look like white spots. Here is one, bookended by orange dashes (the points of light that surround it are stars in the distance that remain motionless between the observations). You can see how, over the months, the position of the moon changes in relation to the objects that surround it:
The new discovery brings to 79 the total number of known moons around of Jupiter. and moons waiting to be confirmed, according to Gareth Williams, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and at the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union Union, who were checking Sheppard's coordinates and observations for the moons
are so small, it is not possible to say for sure what they are made of, but Sheppard says that he suspects a mixture of rocks and ice, a common composition in this region of solar system.
Sheppard says that Jupiter probably captured these moons in his orbit after his own turbulent birth; In this chapter of our solar system, the space around Jupiter was swimming with remains of objects from the creation of the planet. "In the region of the giant planet – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – now this region is devoid of small objects, and that's because the giant planets have swept away everything that was originally in this region, "says Sheppard. "These outer moons are the last vestiges of the objects that formed the planets."
Now that these tiny new moons have made their debut, the International Astronomical Union will examine the potential names, which historically come from figures associated with the Roman god Jupiter. Sheppard proposed a name for one of the newly discovered moons: Valetudo, for the goddess of health and hygiene and a descendant of Jupiter. (Sheppard chose Valetudo as a tribute to his girlfriend, whom he teases for taking several showers a day.)
Sheppard says that Valetudo is a "weird". The smaller of the group, it orbits Jupiter in the opposite direction of the other newly discovered moons. This configuration means that Jovian's tiny moons could collide, Sheppard explains. "I think Valetudo was probably a much bigger moon at one point, and it's going in the wrong direction and so he probably collided with those other moons that moved on the other side," says -he.
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