Calhoun07
05-17-2002, 10:51 PM
I love astronomy, and I am drawn to stories like this, so when I saw this head line, I reeled.
Eleven More Jupiter Moons Discovered
By JANIS L. MAGIN
.c The Associated Press
HONOLULU (May 16) - Astronomers at the University of Hawaii have discovered 11 more moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing the number orbiting the solar system's largest planet to 39.
The discovery by the team led by astronomer David Jewitt and graduate student Scott Sheppard was announced Thursday by the International Astronomical Union. The group, which first identified the moons in December, discovered 11 other moons orbiting Jupiter in January 2001.
``It's pretty exciting to find these,'' Sheppard said. ``When you're actually up there observing, it's very time consuming, very rigorous.''
Astronomers used a telescope atop Mauna Kea and one of the largest digital imaging cameras in the world to find the moons, the astronomers said. The moons are between 1.25 miles and 2.5 miles in diameter, the astronomers said.
``The technology is improving now to the point that the number of moons in the solar system has doubled because of the new technology,'' said Donald Yeomans, senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. ``It's really quite extraordinary - the number of moons in the solar system has doubled.''
The discovery is also significant because the moons rotate in the opposite rotation of Jupiter, astronomers said. Satellites typically rotate in the same direction as the planet they orbit.
The unusual rotations indicate the moons were formed in another place and captured by Jupiter's orbit, Jewitt said.
``They must have been captured at some very, very early time when things were different,'' he said.
With 39 moons, Jupiter has the most of any planet in the solar system. Its four largest - Io, Europa, Calisto and Ganymede - were discovered by Galileo in 1610.
Sheppard said more moons could also be discovered the next time the planet can be clearly observed from Earth. He said the new moons won't be named for some time because astronomers must observe one full orbit rotation, which takes 600 days.
``We've recently discovered so many new moons we're going to run out of names,'' Sheppard said.
05/16/02 23:27 EDT
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
I mean, why didn't these get discovered before? This is just so fascinating to me, don't know exactly why, but it's quite interesting news. I guess we don't know as much about our own solar system as we previously thought. That we can still find new moons in our solar system is interesting to me in this world where you would think we already found what we need to know here. At least as far as counting and accounting for all the planetary bodies in our solar system and their moons.
39 moons....wow. I wonder what their night sky looks like!
Eleven More Jupiter Moons Discovered
By JANIS L. MAGIN
.c The Associated Press
HONOLULU (May 16) - Astronomers at the University of Hawaii have discovered 11 more moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing the number orbiting the solar system's largest planet to 39.
The discovery by the team led by astronomer David Jewitt and graduate student Scott Sheppard was announced Thursday by the International Astronomical Union. The group, which first identified the moons in December, discovered 11 other moons orbiting Jupiter in January 2001.
``It's pretty exciting to find these,'' Sheppard said. ``When you're actually up there observing, it's very time consuming, very rigorous.''
Astronomers used a telescope atop Mauna Kea and one of the largest digital imaging cameras in the world to find the moons, the astronomers said. The moons are between 1.25 miles and 2.5 miles in diameter, the astronomers said.
``The technology is improving now to the point that the number of moons in the solar system has doubled because of the new technology,'' said Donald Yeomans, senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. ``It's really quite extraordinary - the number of moons in the solar system has doubled.''
The discovery is also significant because the moons rotate in the opposite rotation of Jupiter, astronomers said. Satellites typically rotate in the same direction as the planet they orbit.
The unusual rotations indicate the moons were formed in another place and captured by Jupiter's orbit, Jewitt said.
``They must have been captured at some very, very early time when things were different,'' he said.
With 39 moons, Jupiter has the most of any planet in the solar system. Its four largest - Io, Europa, Calisto and Ganymede - were discovered by Galileo in 1610.
Sheppard said more moons could also be discovered the next time the planet can be clearly observed from Earth. He said the new moons won't be named for some time because astronomers must observe one full orbit rotation, which takes 600 days.
``We've recently discovered so many new moons we're going to run out of names,'' Sheppard said.
05/16/02 23:27 EDT
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
I mean, why didn't these get discovered before? This is just so fascinating to me, don't know exactly why, but it's quite interesting news. I guess we don't know as much about our own solar system as we previously thought. That we can still find new moons in our solar system is interesting to me in this world where you would think we already found what we need to know here. At least as far as counting and accounting for all the planetary bodies in our solar system and their moons.
39 moons....wow. I wonder what their night sky looks like!