Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

43 More Moons Discovered Orbiting Jupiter

Posted by michael on from the space-junk dept.

linuxwrangler writes "Scott S. Sheppard, a graduate student at the University of Hawaii, has discovered 43 more moons orbiting Jupiter more than doubling the number of known Jovian moons. The small moons, which follow wildly irregular orbits, are thought to be the result of ancient collisions of larger moons. Sheppard used a 2.2 and a 3.6 meter telescope at the Mauna Kea observatory to catalog the moons."

41 comments

  1. What's the total? by aster_ken · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've read several of these "more moons around planet " on Slashdot recently, and I'm just curious:

    What's the total number discovered around Jupiter? Saturn? Neptune? Mars? Pluto? Etc.?

    I know Earth has two, but I don't really know about the others. Mars has two, right?

    1. Re:What's the total? by extrasolar · · Score: 1

      What?

      Since when did the earth have two moons? Is it possible to see the other one?

    2. Re:What's the total? by josephgrossberg · · Score: 1

      RTFA.

      "With those discoveries a total of 80 satellites are now known to orbit the giant gas planet."

      --

      Joe
      http://www.joegrossberg.com
    3. Re:What's the total? by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Since when did the earth have two moons? Is it possible to see the other one? "

      That's no moon....

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    4. Re:What's the total? by PD · · Score: 5, Informative

      Earth has a 'moon' in a very strange horseshoe shaped orbit, and it's named Cruithne.

      http://burtleburtle.net/bob/physics/cruithne.htm l

      It's pronounced Croo-EEN-ya, which is Celtic I think.

      --
      If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
    5. Re:What's the total? by geoswan · · Score: 3, Interesting
      And this story is just an update to these two stories.

      And no, Earth is not known to have two moons, unless you use a really weird definition of "moon". And if you use that weird definition, it would not be two, it would be three.

    6. Re:What's the total? by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      "Is it possible to see the other one?"

      That's no moon....

      So what you're saying is that we have a very short period of time to see this second moon before millions of voices suddenly cry out in terror and are suddenly silenced?

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    7. Re:What's the total? by NanoGator · · Score: 1

      "So what you're saying is that we have a very short period of time to see this second moon before millions of voices suddenly cry out in terror and are suddenly silenced? "

      Ugh don't remind me. That wasn't very realistic. We all know that millions of voices would cry out "What the fuck is that?!"

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    8. Re:What's the total? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, he never said what the voices cried out.

    9. Re:What's the total? by bembleton · · Score: 1

      I'm curious - how big does a moon have to be before it's concidered to be a moon? I mean any asteroid captured in orbit around a planet could be concidered one, but do they need to have a spherical shape to be a moon in a sense of the word?

  2. How convenient! by cbiffle · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now we can call them, what, Sheppard moons? But Jupiter's ring is so insignificant!

    Ahhhh, astronomy puns.

  3. Definitely a rising star... by 0x69 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A young grad student is getting time on some of professional astronomy's top-tier toys, then publishing his results in Nature? Very interesting indeed...

    Even if it's a fix, this guy seems a shoe-in to get (*extremely* scarce) good job offers in astronomy.

    --
    It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
    1. Re:Definitely a rising star... by PD · · Score: 2, Funny

      I hope he's good on TV, and has a penchant for writing to the masses. A strange pronounciation of a common word would help too.

      We need someone to fill the shoes of Carl Sagan

      --
      If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
    2. Re:Definitely a rising star... by CanSpice · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, grad students at the University of Hawaii are privileged in that UH gets telescope time on every telescope on the mountain for free, either 10 or 15% of all allocated time. This puts UH staff and students in an enviable position where they do not have to go through stricter reviews in order to get telescope time on some of the best telescopes in the world.

      Some (if not most) of the telescopes on Mauna Kea are oversubscribed, which means that for every night of available observing time they have more than one night of applications. More clearly stated, when applications roll in the total number of nights applied for might be, say, 150 nights in a six-month period when there might only be 100 nights available.

      That's for regular applicants. Remember that UH gets 10 to 15% of the time straight off the top. There are some telescopes on Mauna Kea where the UH observers don't know what to do with their time!

      And for what it's worth, there aren't that many jobs available for moon hunters. It's an extremely small field and, in my opinion, an extremely uninteresting one from any kind of theoretical point of view. All you do is get a big telescope with a wide field camera, point it just off the side of Jupiter, take a bunch of pictures, and see if anything moved. There's little innovation or new ideas involved, which is why something like this was left to a grad student.

      And it's not like you need to have a PhD to get published. As an undergrad student I was published twice and had posters involving my work presented at two or three conferences. And some of that work was using possibly the most famous telescope of all -- the Hubble Space Telescope.

      Not to degrade Mr. Sheppard's discovery, but it's not that big a deal, really.

    3. Re:Definitely a rising star... by astrobabe · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't think the big profs count the 2.2 and 3.6 meter telescopes as a top tier toy. As an undergrad at Arizona I had regular access to a 2.3 meter and a 2.4 meter telescope on Kitt Peak immediately after my freshman year. Part of this was due to having a nice advisor and some of it was because everyone else was trying to use bigger telescopes like the MMT and Magellan.

      Seeing as this guy is at Hawaii I'm betting the fights over the 2 to 3 meter class telescopes is no where near the fights people would get into over the much bigger (10 meter class) WM Keck telescopes

      And after only an undergrad degree I have a cushy job in astronomy at the SIRTF Science Center that pays more than some astro postdocs. . . .

    4. Re:Definitely a rising star... by t0qer · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not to degrade Mr. Sheppard's discovery, but it's not that big a deal, really.

      Got to disagree with you there...

      What this guy did was add to a map of the solar system. Finding these moons means we don't have to worry about crashing billion dollar probes into them because "I didn't know it was there"

      Your comment sounds more like jealousy than critique.
      As an undergrad student I was published twice and had posters involving my work presented at two or three conferences.

      Yeah but I bet you never had your work published and slashdotted!

    5. Re:Definitely a rising star... by CanSpice · · Score: 1

      The odds of smacking a probe into a 10-kilometer moon that's orbiting Jupiter are a billion to one. I don't think NASA spends more than five minutes worrying about that one.

  4. Ohh.. by IpsissimusMarr · · Score: 2, Informative

    No wonder people complain about science textbooks are so out of date

    ...
    Even the scientists aren't sure.

    --
    "Engineers do the work of man, Physicists do the work of God"
    1. Re:Ohh.. by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      No wonder people complain about science textbooks are so out of date

      The books should do something like this:

      Moon Counts:

      Mercury: 0
      Venus: 0
      Earth: 1
      Mars: 2
      Jupiter: lots and lots

      ....

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  5. eBay? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can I get one on eBay?

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:eBay? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Goatse will happily moon you on ebay

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  6. Jodie Foster by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1

    "We need someone to fill the shoes of Carl Sagan"

    If he can also write a novel that can get adapted into a bad Jodie Foster movie about a giant toy gyroscope, he's got the job.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  7. Are they... by Muad'Dave · · Score: 1

    going to be called "Sheppard's Shepherd Moons"? Or "Shep[pa|he]rd moons?

    [Shepherd moons are what keep the rings in line and are responsible for the many gaps in the rings].

    --
    Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
  8. I prefer real links. by SeanAhern · · Score: 2, Informative

    Cruithne

  9. What next? by Luigi30 · · Score: 2, Funny

    They'll discover that Earth is a moon of Jupiter, and that the universe revolves around Jupiter? Hey didn't we go over this about 250 years ago?

    --
    503 Sig Unavailable

    The Signature could not be accessed. Please try again later or contact the administrator
  10. double-take by Sherloqq · · Score: 3, Funny
    *sigh* I had to re-read the title, cause at first glance the conversation didn't match the topic...

    • 43 Morons Discovered Orbiting Jupiter


    oh...
    --
    Have EVDO, will travel.
    1. Re:double-take by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My misreading was a bit more disturbing...

      43 Mormons Discovered Orbiting Jupiter

    2. Re:double-take by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1

      You are right. There are a hell of a lot more than 43 morons in the conversation topic.

      --
      "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
      --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  11. Not a moon, IMHO by boarder · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to this site: Wikipedia, Cruithne is an asteroid that shares Earth's orbit about the Sun, but doesn't actually orbit Earth. This site has more technical information.

    Mars has a co-orbital asteroid and Jupiter has 400 captured asteroids, but they aren't considered moons. They are just asteroids, as is this one.

    So in my opinion, since this is just an asteroid of small size and it doesn't truly orbit our planet, it shouldn't be called a moon.

    --
    IANAL, but I play one on /.
    1. Re:Not a moon, IMHO by barakn · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The "400 captured asteroids" aren't called moons, not because they are asteroids, but because they are not moons, i.e. they are not captured. They are Trojans that orbit the sun (not Jupiter) with the same period as Jupiter. And there's over 1600 of them.

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
    2. Re:Not a moon, IMHO by Angry+Pixie · · Score: 1

      since this is just an asteroid of small size and it doesn't truly orbit our planet, it shouldn't be called a moon.

      One of the women at my office flies around the world as much as I do, and she's certainly no small size.

      Orbit conditing met. Is she a moon?

  12. Jovian moon colonies not such a good idea then? by ralphclark · · Score: 1
    The small moons, which follow wildly irregular orbits, are thought to be the result of ancient collisions of larger moons

    So, if there are still 80 largish pieces of rock whizzing about up there what are the chances of another collision?

    1. Re:Jovian moon colonies not such a good idea then? by barakn · · Score: 2, Funny

      p=1

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  13. How big of moons? by Cyno01 · · Score: 1

    How big are these 'moons'? I'm just gonna nitpick and point out that every gas giant in our system has rings, just not all as spectacular as Saturn's. Google:jovian rings

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  14. 43? by pokka · · Score: 1


    Are they sure it's 43? It would be much more interesting if they found 42 new moons instead.

  15. Re:42 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just wait a while. One of them will likely turn out to be a large piece of cardboard put there to fool us.

  16. Re:double-double-take by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1 moron discovered posting on /.

  17. Most will be destroyed in 2010, by pecosdave · · Score: 1

    when the monolith turns Jupiter into a secondary sun. Only the outer, bigger better known ones will survive. Of course we wont be able to land on Europa.


    "All these worlds are yours, except Europa...
    ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE."

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.