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Eighty years ago, Clyde Tombaugh set up a new planet on this continent (an apology to Abraham Lincoln in many respects, including an absence of one year). The name of the planet was Pluto and his discovery culminated the research begun by Percival Lowell for Planet X – a new theoretical member of our solar system. Last week, a team of astronomers, including Chad Trujillo, of NAU, announced his own surprising discovery by performing a modern search on Planet X. They did not find a planet (yet!) But a dozens of undetected moons around Jupiter.
The story of this discovery dates back to 2014 when the team, led by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science, discovered a small body in the far reaches of the solar system. Called 2012 VP113, its orbit is not only the farthest from all the objects of the solar system, but also similar to several other bodies of external solar systems. This led Sheppard and his team to suggest that a large planet, hitherto undetected, was standing there somewhere, shepherd (or should we say Shepparding?) These bodies to similar orbits. called "Planet X", just as Lowell began his Planet X research in 1905, looking for an object that seemed to disrupt the planet Uranus.
In 2017, Jupiter was in the same sky zone where the team was looking for the planet. The members of the team decided to take advantage of this proximity to see if they could detect new Jovian satellites. Trujillo, an assistant professor in the NAU's Department of Physics and Astronomy, explains, "The search for Jupiter's moons was conducted by Scott Sheppard and Carnegie, and was a great way to use our telescope time overnight. Planet X's survey fields were not available. "
This search for lateral attraction proved successful.On the basis of observations made at the Interamerican Observatory of Cerro Tololo in Chile, the team discovered a dozen or so new For the Trujillo game, he measured their positions and examined follow-up images of several of the moons, the efforts needed to confirm their identity.A part of this imagery was done with the Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) of the Lowell Observatory, under the direction of Lowell, Audrey Thirouin and Nick Moskovitz, Trujillo said, "Our partnership with Lowell on the DCT is important and its access allows us to quickly track new discoveries, which is important for things like these new moons of Jupiter whose orbits are initially very uncertain. "
Astronomers help astronomers refine their understanding of the Jovian system Thirouin says:" By studying them and discovering perhaps more (stay tuned!), we can understand when, where and how they formed and ended up as moons. "
Initially, the new moons are divided into three categories: the first consists of nine moons located 15 million miles from Jupiter and moving in the opposite direction to the rotation of Jupiter around its axis (retrograde movement). perhaps remains of three larger moons that have broken after striking in other bodies such as asteroids, comets or other moons.
The second group includes two moons that are closer to Jupiter and o turn it in the same direction as the rotation of Jupiter (prograde movement). They surround Jupiter in just under a year and are probably the remains of a larger moon that has broken.
The third group has a single member, a particular moon whose orbit is oddly different from any other Jovian satellite. He is nicknamed Valetudo, after the Roman goddess of health and the great-granddaughter of Jupiter. Valetudo presents a prograde movement but is farther and moves in a different angle from the other Jovian prograde moons. Like a car traveling in the wrong direction on a one-way street, she could possibly cross the retrograde outer moons and crash with them. It is probably less than half a mile in diameter, making it the smallest moon of Jupiter. This brings us to the question of how an object can be small and be considered a moon, but it's a discussion for another day
For now, Moon's number confirmed by Jupiter is 79, far exceeding the other planets: Saturn (61), Uranus (27) Neptune (14), Mars (two), Earth (one) and Mercury and Venus (none). And let's not forget Pluto, the result of the first search on Planet X, for which five moons have now been counted.
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