A Dozen New Moons Found Orbiting Saturn

www.space.com...

May 6

A Dozen New Moons Found Orbiting Saturn

A dozen small moons have been discovered orbiting Saturn, bringing that planet's total known count to 46.

The discoveries were made with Japan's Subaru telescope in Hawaii in an ongoing project led by David Jewitt at the University of Hawaii.

The moons are estimated to range in diameter from 2 to 4 miles (3 to 7 kilometers). They are provisionally named S/2004-S7 through S/2004-S18. All but one of them orbits Saturn in the opposite direction of the planet's spin. This retrograde motion, as it is called, is common of small moons around the outer planets and indicates the rocky objects may be captured asteroids, scientists say.

The number of known moons in our solar system has jumped dramatically in recent years as various teams have employed new technologies to find them. Researchers expect there are hundreds and possibly thousands more, depending on how small an object should be considered a moon.

As of this writing, Jupiter has 63 known moons, Uranus has 27, and 13 have been found around Neptune. Mars has two moons and Earth has one, as does Pluto.

The discoveries were made last December and announced this week.

-- SPACE.com Staff

w0w...

46 moons so far!?!?!?

and we only have one

Yeah, but ours is THE Moon.

They're nothing, just small rocks caught in orbit it by big planets. Two miles in diameter? Please, Manhattan is bigger than that. I'd be hesitant to call them moons. Satellites would be a better term.



Yes, they're moons, just small, pitiful, boring ones.

Originally posted by they see ALL
and we only have one

Well... while we are at conveniently warm distance from sun it also means its gravity is much stronger here so low mass planets have hard time retaining (or even collecting) many moons.
Also outer solar system has lot of dirty iceball-moons which couldn't have formed/survived in inner solar system. (and solar wind cleaned inner solar system much more effectively)

Actually if you look volume of space dominated by gravity of certain planet ones of Uranus and Neptune are much bigger than the one dominated by many times more massive Jupiter.

``

if they ever really analyse these extra 'moons'
it just may point back to a out-of-favor hypothesis
that the astroid belt are remains of a'Planet Vulcan'
and these moons are also captured debris. ??

Google up Exploded Planet Hypothesis

these unexpected moons and the gigantic flood of
liquid water on one hemisphere of mars (long since gone)
probably should be revisited as resulting from that EPH event

imho

perhaps we find one of jupiters moons or something for auction on ebay, with the description, "I just have too many..." and maybe we can get it for under $1,000(528.57 GBP).

Originally posted by Amorymeltzer
Yeah, but ours is THE Moon.

They're nothing, just small rocks caught in orbit it by big planets. Two miles in diameter? Please, Manhattan is bigger than that. I'd be hesitant to call them moons. Satellites would be a better term.



Yes, they're moons, just small, pitiful, boring ones.

thanks for the info ATSers...

i never really thought that ice moons couldn't survive by earth...

Here's some information about the telescope and its set up.

www.naoj.org...

8.2 m diameter mirror, weighs in at about 23 tons. I think I'll buy one for my backyard!

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
Here's some information about the telescope and its set up.

www.naoj.org...

8.2 m diameter mirror, weighs in at about 23 tons. I think I'll buy one for my backyard!

i knew it...

of course YOU would buy one