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New Moon of Jupiter Discovered
xihr writes "Astronomers have discovered a new moon of Jupiter, bringing its known retinue of satellites to a whopping 40. The new moon, designated S/2002 J1, is only 3 km wide, and has a highly inclined and eccentric orbit.
Astronomy.com has the story."
Only 3 km wide? At what point does it go from being a relatively small chunk of rock floating around a planet to being a moon?
Would it be possible haul enough of a mountain into space orbit to be technically classified as a moon? I mean, man has walked on Earth's moon.. but is he able to make one himself? Or has he already?
-Matt
Lets take that moon into earth orbit, it could be fun.
By Jove, another moon!
runs away quickly
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
Thats no moon, its a space station!
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
Does it have tiny volcanos that have to be cleaned every day with a chimney broom? Now we know where that little boy from the stars returns to at the end of every episode!
That's not a soda... it's a caffeine delivery device!
I think space agencies should auction off on e-bay the right to name new celestial bodies. Why not? Everything else is for auction. Could be fun.
"Class, this is a picture of YourMomNaked as it completes its orbit cycle."
Readers have discovered a new post on the linux desktop, bringing its known retinue of dupes to a whopping 40. The new post, designated S/2002 J1, is only 3 k long, and has a highly inclined and eccentric style. Slashdot.org has the story. Again!
That aside, I wonder when the folks working on Celestia will release an update to display the new moon in the space similator.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
Like all of the newly discovered moons, this little bit of rock is just another captured asteroid - its retrograde (backwards) orbit is a dead giveaway. Simulations show that most of the captured moons will eventually wander back to the asteroid belt - so this is the solar system equivalent of a one night stand.
BTW, the rings of Jupiter are close to the planet - this new moon is not. It's so far away you couldn't see it with the naked eye if you were so unwise as to stand on the surface of Europa or Io and look for it.
How possible is it that this moon was recently captured in Jupiter's gravity (say in the last few years)? Maybe this could explain it's eccentric orbit (ie that it hit tangentally enough that it wasn't sucked in while not so shallow as to bounce away)? Does such a thing happen or am I blowing smoke out of my ass?
*checks*
Hmmm, no smoke yet.
What is music when you despise all sound?
As for where the other satellites came from....
The discovery of the last eleven of them is discussed here (39);
the eleven before those are discussed here (28);
the one before those is discussed here (17);
Simple (more or less) - if it orbits another body (not a star), and is not man-made, it's a moon. Size is not really a consideration - if you can detect it, it's worth cataloging.
I believe that Dactyl, the moon of the asteroid Ida, is only about 100 meters across.
The exception occurs in planetary rings, where a moon has to be bigger than the ordinary rubble of the ring to be considered a moon.
Astronomers have discovered two new specks of Jovian dust, JM20022812174130 and JM20022812174130A, which are Jupiter's 84,519,786,014th and 84,519,786,015th moons, respectively.
Scientists are now beginning the process of officially naming the two new worlds. This is expected to pass through several committees before signature in March 2007.
With the discovery, Jupiter is now 3,845,108,491 moons ahead of closest rival Saturn in the race for biggest posse in the solar system.
"Folks just call him Buckethead." -- Les Claypool
The whole thing is rather subjective really. Like when does a boat become a ship?
The answer in both cases is somewhat similar. A ship is a vessel large enough to carry a boat. Not very enlightening actually, if you insist on rigid taxonomy for every little object in existence. After all, a 22' sailboat can carry an 8' tender on deck, and yet remains merely a boat, not a ship.
The basic standard for being a planet is large enough to have a moon. Uh huh. Cue the self referencial infinate loop here.
Although Pluto meets, barely, this standard, quietly in the backrooms it isn't even really considered a planet these days. If we knew as much about it in the 30's it probably never would have been classified as a planet in the first place. "Planet" is also largely considered to only apply to those major bodies that were formed as such with the solar system. Circumstancial evidenced suggests that Pluto started "life" as a moon of Neptune that "got away," possibly knocked out of orbit by a comet.
That would mean Pluto is a planet that's *also* a moom, although without being a planetary satellite. It's a weird dude, dude.
The only rule for being considered a moon is being "big enough" to be so classified. Uh huh. Cue thumb up nose routine here.
The rule of, ummmmmmmmm, thumb, is if you can walk around on it it's a moon. Unless it isn't rocky, we're prejudiced against ice balls. Or maybe if it's discovered on Tuesday. Who knows?
Of course most of these small moons of the gas giants wouldn't even come close to meeting the formed naturally in the system test. They're pretty much space junk that's ended up stuck in the planet's gravitational field as they wandered by. Captured asteroids. Cue video game joke here.
Of course if you could literally anthropomorphise a bit of space rock and ask it what it was ( which I don't recommend because they hate that) it would almost certainly say, "Yahwe, now bugger off." It is what it is, and that's all that it is.
This urge to rigidly classify everything is a human failing. The rocks themselves couldn't care less.
KFG
Jupiter doesn't have rings, eh? NASA might disagree with you there...