Photos from open sources of
American astronomers from the Carnegie Institution discovered at Jupiter 12 new satellites, 11 of which were called “normal” and 1 – “weird.” Now the number of moons known to man of this gas the giant is 79 – much more than any other planet Solar system.
Initially, researchers led by Professor Scott Shepard searched last summer for traces of the mythical Ninth Planet, or Planet X At a certain point in the field of view of scientists was Jupiter, and the Americans decided to study the “surroundings” in more detail the largest planet in the solar system: what if the mysterious Nibiru hiding somewhere here? Astronomers not only managed to identify new the moons of Jupiter, but also calculate their orbits, however, to the authors the finds took a whole year, which is why their discovery appeared in the press just now.
Nine of the found celestial bodies are part of an external group satellites orbiting Jupiter in a retrograde orbit (in the opposite direction relative to the direction of rotation of the planets). A complete revolution around the gas giant each of these moons commits in about 2 earth years.
A photo from open sources
The other two satellites are closer to Jupiter than the celestial bodies from the first group. They rotate in the same direction as planet, and are approximately the same distance from her. It is assumed that these astronomical objects are fragments of the larger moon of Jupiter, once split into pieces. Each of them spends on a flight around the planet a little less than an earthly year.
Jupiter’s smallest satellite turned out to be the most awesome
Finally, researchers call the remaining satellite crank. “A tiny moon with a diameter less than a kilometer is substantially removed from Jupiter and rotates in the same direction as he, however, unlike other newly discovered satellites, it has significant angle of inclination of the axis relative to the axis of the gas giant. To make one complete revolution around the planet, “strange” satellite takes about a year and a half.
Another curious feature of this object, that is the twelfth, the smallest satellite, is that its the orbit intersects with the orbits of the other moons of Jupiter, that is, it can easily run into the latter. Find authors compare Valetudo (such a name got a fancy “baby”) with a car, which sweeps in the oncoming lane and risks any minute crash into another transport, and a larger one, and therefore deadly to him.
Scott Shepard and his colleagues believe that initially Jupiter had 3 huge moons, but over time they scattered and turned into such “fragments.” According to experts suggest that today the largest planet in the Solar systems can have about 100 moons, some of which, of course, are still to be found.
Moon Solar System Jupiter
