Slashdot Mirror
New Jovian Moon Discovered
Mr. GuySmiley writes: "Astronomers of the SpaceWatch Project have discovered a
another moon orbiting Jupiter. It has been over 25 years since the last discovery of an outer
Jovian satellite (Voyager found three inner moons in 1979). The moon has been designated S/1999 J 1. This brings the total number of moons
orbiting Jupiter to 17. Hail the King of the Planets!"
There is a long drawn bureaucratic process for naming any astronomical object. It will have to be approved by the International Astronomical Union before it can be officially called anything interesting. In the mean time, the astronomers are suppose to use specific designations for specific objects (not that a great many astronomers follow these designations but in press releases, at least, appearances must be maintained).
I'm glad to see that they are sticking with the tradition of the roman pantheon as nomenclature.... I did a paper in university on the pre-christian festivals of S/1999J1...
2 1337 4 u!
SOL SYSTEM - Jupiter Satellite Enterprises (JSE) was awarded the patent on "moons" today after patent reviewers said "wow, we'd have never thought of that!" JSE immediately filed lawsuits against Earth, Inc., Consolidated Mars, the Saturn Company (not affiliated with the automobile manufacturer), Uranus Systems, and Neptune Affiliates, claiming patent and intellectual property infringement.
When asked why no suits had been filed against Pluto concerning its natural satellite Charon, spokesdroids of JSE responded, "Pluto's not a real planet, just a annoying big asteroid who occasionally gets in Neptune's way." Pluto responded by saying "Piss off! Damn, it's cold out here!"
The defendents each responded quickly, with Earth, Inc., and Consolidated Mars both claiming prior use of moons, and the Saturn Company saying, "We have more moons than Jupiter, our rings are prettier, and we can float in water, so they can get bent!" Neptune Affiliates had no immediate comment, while Uranus Systems was quoted as saying "Quit making fun of our name!"
"The dead do not shoo-bop-aloo-bah." -- Kai, 'Lexx'
Shouldn't you being putting your pinky to your mouth as you intone, "two ... million ... kilometers", Dr. Evil?
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
The "other" moon of earth is not gravitionally captured by earth. Instead its movement around the sun is synchronized with the earth in a way that make it looks like a moon, as seen from earth.
A link is here . And if you got a lot of time to kill, you could also visit this place.
Check your sources and your facts before being egregiously sarcastic: Although perhaps the construction isn't the best choice, the original article makes clear that the last outer (>11 Gm, or ) moon was discovered in 1974 while Voyager discovered three inner ( 2 Gm) moons in 1979.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
Wrong. More moons were disovered during the Voyager missions in the '70s.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I'm a big fan of Jupiter and it's moons. And I was initally thrilled by reading the headline. However, it quickly occured to me that a Jovial moon that has not been discovered until recently, must be tiny. A space turd, if you will. Sure enough, the article mentions an estimate for the diameter of the moon at about 3 miles. It's a bit hard to get excited about an ordinary asteroid that happened to get caught in Jupiter's gravitational field.
But, technically, it's a new moon because it orbits a planet. Of course, every man-made satellite that we've put in orbit around Jupiter, not to mention the Earth, is also, technically, a moon. Not to mention other items, like the infamous glove lost by an astronaut, which will orbit the Earth as a small, insignificant moon until getting sucked in a bit too close to the atmosphere.
I even seem to remember reading, perhaps on slashdot, about a comet with a hugely erratic orbit that scientists believe centers around the earth. So, we have 2 natural moons!
In reality, if we lived on Jupiter, and scientists told us that there was a tiny 3 mile long pebble orbitting 15 million miles from the surface that we couldn't see with our naked eye, would we call it a moon? Or would we not worry about it because we're getting squished by the massive gravitational field and dealing with the fact that we're trying to stand on a gaseous planet?
We must respect evil, and we must make evil respect us.
Good question.
First off, only 5-10 miles big is too small to always be spherical. I believe it is somewhere between 100-200 miles (160-320 km) in diameter before gravitational forces are strong enough to force a spherical shape -- assuming the mean density of most asteroids/planets which can, of course, vary greatly. Please correct me if I am wrong.
So what is the criteria for an orbiting object to be termed a "natural satellite" then? I assume it is:
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
Independent Author, Consultant and Trainer
I agree - it's very subjective. I wouldn't go so far as to call the billions upon billions of ice particles orbiting the larger planets moons in themselves.
By the same reasoning, Pluto (and Charon) isn't really a planet. If it was discovered today, it would probably be labelled as a double asteroid. (For convenience, too. Think of all the literature that would have to be rewritten these days if another "planet" were discovered. It'd have to be quite a major planet to be categorised as one.)
Also because it was discovered before there was a well-embedded concept of asteroids, and also during a time (1930's) when many people assumed there must be another planet. For this reason it made it's place as one of the "nine" major planets.
This reasoning hasn't exactly reached moons yet. If it's orbiting a planet and bigger than a speck of dust, it gets labelled a moon.
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Unless, of course, anyone here has a better idea for a name... (evil grin)
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
"An estimated 5 to 10 miles in diameter, that 1974 discovery, named Leda"
So what does it take to become a moon? I mean, 5 to 10 miles is not very big, in my mind at least. Is it merely a size issue or are there other things taken into consideration?
-Frijoles-
That's no moon. That's a space station!
Umm.. obviously they would name it MoonHut.
Not to be picky, here, but I believe that Saturn has more moons than Jupiter. Of course, the poster didn't say that, but I just wanted to be sure that nobody inferred incorrectly. :-)
[Thanks to Students of the Exploration and Development of Space (www.seds.org) for the reference. Check out for a list of all the named moons for both.]
The moon has been designated S/1999 J 1.
Pretty original. Why can't they pick something more modern? How about names from sci-fi classics? Why not call it Spock?
kwsNI
Perhaps after funding the launch of the latest ISS rocket, Pizza Hut will start funding planetary body searches, on the condition that they get to name whatever they find..
Dateline October, 2015: Jupiter's 18th and 19th moons, named for the company that funded their discovery, are known as Meat Lovers and Big Foot.
Actually one of the more interesting things about Jupiter is that it's often in a tug of war with the sun with respect to the outer satellites. It's thought that every so often, Jupiter can capture an asteroid from the asteriod belt, hold it in orbit for a few years, and then a few years later, the sun takes the asteroid back. So it's probably best said that Jupiter does not have a fixed number of satellites.
As for the rate of technological advance, it's basically the rate at which we can build larger telescopes (as well as correct for atmospheric seeing effects). Larger telescopes can see fainter and smaller objects (higher resolution), so the larger the 'scope the better chance of discoving small faint objects in orbit.
That's the simplified answer, anyway.
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This type of thing makes me wonder, how much garbage has Jupiter (and our other gas giant planets) colelcted and thus reduced the chance of a major impact on earth.
Since we are also discovering gas giants far larger than jupiter orbiting other stars, does that mean that the 'could' be protecting more inner planets than Jupiter in our solar system.
Makes ya wonder.
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www.mp3.com/Undocumented
Well, all moons have an Inner moon just waiting to get out.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
RMS proposed it actually be called GNU/S/1999 J 1.
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Communication is only possible between equals
Its sad but true, look at the planets.
Mercury - named after Mercury Technologies
Venus - Well, this was a joint investment from Venus Internet (UK) and Venus the semi-porn site.
Earth - Well, thats pretty original I guess.
Mars - Bar anyway?
Jupiter - Financial investment company
Saturn - Sega's amazing console
Uranus - Andrex?
Neptune - Neptune Refrigeration poured a lot into this planet
Pluto - From Disney's favourite dog
And peopel complain about Pizza Hut advertising on the moon, its about the only place left!
I got a 36 on mine :)
IMHO, the crap name given to the moon (S/1999 J 1) is only temporary until they can raise corporate sponsorship - expect the name to soon be changed to "TheMoon.com" or "AOL Time Warner, in association with Jupiter" or "SlashMoon".
Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced.