The three newly discovered moons (S/2023 U1, S/2002 N5, and S/2021 N1) are the faintest ever discovered around Uranus and Neptune using ground-based telescopes.
Discovery image of Uranus’ moon S/2023 U1 using the Magellan Telescope on November 4, 2023. Image credit: Scott Sheppard.
The new Uranian moon, tentatively named S/2023 U1, was first discovered by astronomers at the Carnegie Institution for Science on November 4, 2023. Scott Sheppard using the Magellan Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory.
At just 8 km (5 miles), it is probably the smallest of Uranus’ moons. It takes 680 days to circumnavigate the ice giant.
S/2023 U1 will eventually be named after a character from a Shakespeare play, following Uranus’ outer moon naming conventions.
This discovery brings the total number of moons on this giant icy planet to 28.
Dr. Sheppard also used the Magellan telescope to discover S/2002 N5, the brighter of two newly discovered Neptune moons.
The moon’s diameter is about 23 km (14.3 miles), and it takes almost nine years to circumnavigate the ice giant.
The dimmer moons of Neptune were discovered by Dr. Sheppard and his colleagues using the Subaru telescope.
The star, named S/2021 N1, is about 14 km (8.7 miles) in diameter and has an orbital period of almost 27 years.
S/2002 N5 and S/2021 N1 were both first seen in September 2021.
Both have enduring names based on the 50 Nereid sea goddesses from Greek mythology.
“The orbit around Neptune of S/2002 N5 is determined using observations from 2021, 2022, and 2023, indicating that it was discovered near Neptune in 2003, but is still orbiting the planet. “We were able to trace it back to an object that was lost before it was confirmed,” Sheppard said.
S/2023 U1, S/2002 N5, and S/2021 N1 have far-flung, eccentric, and inclined orbits that occurred when Uranus and Neptune were formed from rings of dust and debris surrounding them, or it suggests that they were captured by the gravity of these planets shortly after our sun is in its infancy.
All giant planets in our solar system, regardless of their size or formation process, have a similar composition of outer moons.
“Even Uranus, which is tilted sideways, has a moon population similar to other giant planets orbiting the sun,” Dr. Sheppard said.
“And Neptune, which likely captured the distant Kuiper Belt object Triton, an event that could disrupt its lunar system, has an outer moon that looks similar to its neighbors. “
This new moon also indicates the existence of a dynamic orbital group of outer moons around Uranus and Neptune, similar to those seen around Jupiter and Saturn.
At Uranus, S/2023 U1 has an orbit similar to Caliban and Stefano.
At Neptune, S/2021 N1 has an orbit similar to Psamate and Neso, and S/2002 N5 has an orbit similar to Thao and Laomedeia.
These groupings suggest that the once larger parent moon was shattered, perhaps by a past collision with a comet or asteroid, leaving shattered debris in an orbit similar to the original larger moon. There is.
Many small lunar fragments are likely present in these groups, but they are generally too small to be efficiently observed with current technology.
These groupings of moons indicate that the early solar system was a very chaotic place, with constant movement and collisions between different objects.
Source: www.sci.news
