New Moon System Around Uranus

An anonymous reader writes "Astronomers have discovered two of the smallest moons yet found around Uranus. The new moons, uncovered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, are about 8 to 10 miles across (12 to 16 km) -- about the size of San Francisco. The two moons are so faint they eluded detection by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which discovered 10 small satellites when it flew by the gas giant planet in 1986. The newly detected moons are orbiting even closer to the planet than the five major Uranian satellites, which are several hundred miles wide. The two new satellites are the first inner moons of Uranus discovered from an Earth-based telescope in more than 50 years. "It's a testament to how much our Earth-based instruments have improved in 20 plus years that we can now see such faint objects 1.7 billion miles (2.8 billion km) away," says Mark Showalter, a senior research associate at Stanford University. 'The inner swarm of 13 satellites is unlike any other system of planetary moons,' says co-investigator Jack Lissauer. 'The larger moons must be gravitationally perturbing the smaller moons. The region is so crowded that these moons could be gravitationally unstable. So, we are trying to understand how the moons can coexist with each other.'"

Comments

Too easy

[mgebbers]

"Moon System Around Uranus"? Why even bother thinking of something funny? :/

A scholarly look at Uranus

[metamatic]

Yes, there's nothing funny about Uranus. let's forget the childish humor and take a serious, scholarly look at Uranus. To many people it's just a giant cloud of gas where the sun doesn't shine, but those of us who are enthusiastic about Uranus know that it has many secrets.

Surprising as it may seem, we don't have all that many photographs of Uranus. Yes, the Pioneers sent back pictures of Uranus, lots of them. But there are very few images that are high enough resolution and quality to show the faint rings around Uranus. Perhaps the excitement around these new moons will give us the excuse we need to take another long, hard look at Uranus.

Even if you have no idea how to find Uranus, you can still appreciate its unusual configuration. Scientists still don't understand why Uranus is tilted sideways. Also, while we know what's near the surface, we still aren't sure of the exact chemical mixture deep inside Uranus. Are the moons stable, or are they spiraling into Uranus?

With so much to learn, we must hope that NASA will probe the depths of Uranus soon. Yes, there are many technical issues that will need to be resolved, and problems to be faced--but we put men on the moon, and I'm sure that given sufficient motivation, NASA's engineers can lick Uranus too.

Oh, and yes, the size comparisons are silly, but can you think of a more sensible unit of size than San Francisco for an object in the vicinity of Uranus?