Jupiter's Eleven New Moons

nautical9 writes "Yahoo is reporting that scientists have discovered 11 new moons orbiting around Jupiter, bringing the total to 39. They were discovered using the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope and one of the largest digital imaging cameras in the world. Unfortunately, very little is known about them at this point other than that they're relatively small (compared to the previously known ones), and they all have irregular orbits."

Comments

Shoemaker

[ObviousGuy]

Could these be remnants of Jupiter's surface having been ejected by the impact of the Shoemaker comet?

Very interesting. Would have been better with better pics, though.

Re:Shoemaker

[Gogo Dodo]

Jupiter is a gas giant, there really isn't a "surface" per se. There may be a molten core in the center, but Shoemaker-Levy wasn't that big of a comet to eject matter that far out.

What's more plausable is that these moons are remnants of impacts on other moons. Read the Space.com article on the moons.

Re:Shoemaker

[shrikel]

Not likely. Schumacher-Levy 9 was very small and hit Jupiter full in the center, instead of hitting it at an angle low enough to knock some material into orbit.

Re:Shoemaker

[t0qer]

There may be a molten core in the center,

That may be debateable...

In the book 2001, maybe it was 2010, been a while since I read them, Arthur C. Clarke described there being a large diamond at the center of jupiter, from what i've read in science publications this is not too far fetched considering the amount of carbon in the universe and Jupiters high heat and gravity.

Gotta love those crazy moons

[ObviousGuy]

Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars

In other words, hold my hand
In other words, baby kiss me
Fill my heart with song
and let me sing forevermore
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore

Re:Gotta love those crazy moons

[JonWan]

Now how often do you get to work Frank Sinatra, Juipter, Moons, and Anime into the same post on slashdot? This must be a record.

To quote:

[dimator]

To quote someone I don't know, and don't care to look up:

"The Solar System consists of the Sun, Jupiter, and various other debris"

Re:To quote:

[Anonymous Coward]

My guess: Dan Quayle? :-)

Re:To quote:

[p3d0]

That was Isaac Asimov. I just read him quoted by Arthur C. Clarke in a book of essays called Report on Planet Three. I think the quote was that the solar system "consists of Jupiter plus debris" (taking the sun for granted, of course), though Clarke may have been paraphrasing.

What about the orbits?

[fille]

What do they mean with "excentric" or "irregular" orbits? They also mention "long, elliptical orbits" but that's more the opposite of irregular, isn't it?

Re:What about the orbits?

[tdelaney]

Eccentric, irregular and long, eliptical orbits generally mean that the satellite has been captured by the planet's gravity - i.e. the satellite is an asteroid that passed through Jupiter's gravity field with insufficent velocity to escape.

Some of these satellites may develop stable orbits, others are likely to eventually either escape Jupiter's gravity well or fall into the planet. Most of these satellites would cross the orbits of other satellites (the long, elliptical orbits compared to the more stable almost-circular orbits) and these other bodies will have a large effect on the fate of the captured satellite.

Re:What about the orbits?

[guacamolefoo]

"What do they mean with "excentric" or "irregular" orbits? They also mention "long, elliptical orbits" but that's more the opposite of irregular, isn't it?"

Orbiting in the direction opposite to the rotation of the planet and orbiting at an incline relative to the planet and orbiting elliptically. A typical orbit being (per our local prejudice) being somewhat circular as opposed to more elliptical.

I tend to agree with the conclusions of the researchers that the irregularity of the orbits of some suggests that the objects were trapped by Jupiter's gravity and that they have broken up over time. My initial thought was that Jupiter sucks up an inordinate amount of junk. Asteroids and comets fly by earth with some regularity. It would not surprise me if similar objects flying by Jupiter would get sucked into an orbit on occasion. There has certainly been enough time since the formation of the solar system to have this happen with some degree of regularity.

The similarities with the other gas giants having much larger numbers of moons and irregular moons(Saturn in particular) suggests that this may be a common attribute of gas giants, based on our extensive sample size of four.

I wonder how long it will be until these objects completely degrade into smaller bits of debris or perhaps ring material?

I also wonder how much crap Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus/Neptune have sucked out of the solar system (asteroids, comets, etc.)? I also wonder how much we should be thankful that there are a number of gas giants in our solar system to clean up some of the Kuiper belt visitors and the closer meteorite bits/asteroids in the inner solar system? It is quite possible that we are here to /. about this because Jupiter has taken a few on the chin for us. On the other hand, maybe there would be another planet between Jupiter and Mars if it weren't for Jupiter, reducing the number of asteroids out there.

Guac-foo, full of speculation and wonder at the cosmos -- billyuns and billyuns of SWAGs this morning.

Re:What about the orbits?

[L. J. Beauregard]

Others have mentioned eccentricity, but an orbit can also be "irregular" by being inclined. Most objects in the solar system orbit in nearly the same plane; a few do not.

More detailed reports

[choka]

The story on space.com has more details on this.
Also see the offical offical press release from University of Hawaii.

trend?

[tps12]

If Jupiter can do it, why can't we? I'd like to see Earth improve its moon count, as we have only one.

Re:trend?

[meringuoid]

I'd like to see Earth improve its moon count, as we have only one.

Actually, we sort of have two. There's an asteroid called Cruithne that has a curious orbit around the Earth and Sun...

Re:trend?

[CheshireCatCO]

To capture something into orbit, you need to get rid of some of its energy. One way to do that is to use gas drag in the atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is too small for that to be a viable option. (This tricky probably doesn't work after the solar system forms much anyway.)

The other route is to collide with a pre-existing object already in orbit. The collision will dissipate energy and let the new moon settle in. Earth, having just one Moon, isn't a good candidate for this technique. Also, our domain of graviational dominance (over the Sun's gravity) is much, much smaller than Jupiter's. So capture is hard for us.

Re:trend?

[rtaylor]

Ahh.. so all we need to do is eject California into space (before it falls into the ocean) and then we'll have two moons.

Re:trend?

[daeley]

Yeah, only one, but the biggest one in relation to the parent planet. We rock! (So to speak.) Not to mention all the artificial ones and Asteroid 3753.

Re:trend?

[Tablizer]

(* Yeah, only one, but the biggest one in relation to the parent planet. *)

Wouldn't Pluto have that distinction?........that is if you can call Pluto a "planet".

Sounds like the solution then is to bust our moon into many peices. Better do it now before it is colonized, otherwise you might have to deal with angry lawyers and judges.

Re:trend?

[Overzeetop]

Actually, I prefer to think the "moon" as just our sister planet, making us the only binary planet in our solar system :-)

Re:trend?

[Tiggan]

What about Pluto/Charon?
Not to mention all the KBOs.

More links

[Observer]

Giving google "jupiter moons" returns some more links to the story.

Wonder if they're going to get named? Astronomers must be running out of references to Zeus' amorous adventures by now....

Re:More links

[CheshireCatCO]

Someone who was on one of the moon-hunting teams worried about that to me about a year ago. I compiled a list of 50 names of nurses and paramours of Jupiter with a simply search, so I'm not quite worried, yet. Another 11 and we'll need to get concerned.

Americanism

[mindhaze]

Ok... I'm willing to take an "Off-Topic" hit for this, but here goes:

I love it how american people can refer to something that is not american in such a general state. The "Canada-France-Hawaii" telescope?!! Well, FYI, Canada is composed of 10 provinces and 3 territories (or 11 prov's and 2 terr's... depending on the status of Nunavut). France, whom I'm not overly familiar with, must at least have a couple provinces, musnt it? So, to all you proud americans out there, why don't you do a bit of research on the countries you're posting about, before you just generalize!

Re:Americanism

[meringuoid]

That's its *name*. Look: CFHT.

This was the number one hit on Google for 'canada france hawaii'. Do a bit of research on the telescopes you're posting about, before you just generalize!

Re:Americanism

[Anonymous Coward]

if you don't like it, go to your damned canadian websites, you ignorant fuck.

Re:Americanism

[Anonymous Coward]

You're not off-topic. You're just ignorant.

Re:Americanism

[Anonymous Coward]

congratulations, you just proved that americans can be just as ignorant as anyone anywhere anytime.

well done.

Don't look!

[Devil's BSD]

It's Jupiter mooning us again!

Naming the Moons

[hooded1]

Now most people know that all fo jupiter's moons are named after mortal chicks that Zeus scored with. He was a pretty damn big pimp. He was the Clinton of the Gods, but even he didn't score with 40 mortal womens.... I mean damn 39

We might one day... was:Re:trend?

[Anonymous Coward]

If something were to cause all of those satelites to crash into each other.

Can't happen...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the earth's moon is so large, its gravity would disrupt the orbit of any smaller moons. Artifical satellites need periodic thruster boosts to keep their orbits stable, else they would go adrift and eventually crash.

Jupiter can have many moons because the moons are small enough (relative to the mass of the planet) that they don't interfere with each other gravitationally, but this is not possible with a single large moon as the Earth has.

Canadianism Re:Americanism

[j_w_d]

Are you sure you are Canadian, or are you an emigrant from the U. S. A.? The half-baked, uninformed, ignorant diatribe you posted is an embarrassment to those of us Americans with Canadian parents and relatives. Next time try doing a web search for the topic BEFORE ingesting your foot. More nutritious and easier to swallow too. The Canadian-French-Hawaii telescope is real and is named just as the OP sent.

Re:Canadianism Re:Americanism

[j_w_d]

That should have read "Canada-France-..." but fingers leads their own lives and, after all, my Dad was Canadian.

What about the werewolves?

[gewalker]

With that many moons, Jovian werewolves cannot revert to their non-lupine form except on the rarest of occasions. They probably forget how to change back entirely, probably going years with at a couple of full moons in the sky.

I think we should establish a charitable organazation dedicated to the plight of the Jovian werewolf, deprived of the right to exist in their original form.

Zeus/Jupiter was bi

[Latent Heat]

Like, not everyone he scored with was female. I thought that Ganymede was a dude.