Nature Science

BEAUTIFUL NEW MOONS DISCOVERED

Courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech. “Europa floats in front of Jupiter in this stunning view of the enigmatic ocean moon.”

While our moon gives us an endless supply of beauty, and gravitational power, imagine having 69 moons to consider!

That’s now the official count, tallying the number of moons in orbit around the giant planet Jupiter, as 2 new moons have recently been discovered there.

Another recent discovery found that Jupiter's volcanic moon Io shows waves of lava in the massive molten lake called Loki Patera.

Jupiter has 53 named moons, the other 16 have not yet been given official status or names. The ones of most scientific interest are the 4 Galilean moons, named after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who first observed them in 1610. These large moons, named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, are each very unique.

Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Its surface is sheathed in colorful sulfur. Its volcanoes are powered by Jupiter’s strong gravitational energy pulling at its hot silicate magma.

Europa's icy surface covers a slushy icy ocean beneath. Astrobiologists suspect their may be lifeforms proliferating here.

Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system -- larger than the planet Mercury. It is the only moon known to have its own internally generated magnetic field.

Callisto's surface is extremely heavily cratered.

Io, Jupiter’s most volcanic moon, is seen passing in front of the giant planet.

The newly discovered moons and fascinating volcanic activities have a lot to tell us, not only about Jupiter and its moons, but also about our own planet and solar system. Learn more below.

Several of Jupiter’s 69 moons are seen passing in front as they orbit the planet.

A team of scientists, including Scott Sheppard, of Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM), David Tholen, of the University of Hawaii, and Chadwick Trujillo, of Northern Arizona University, had set out to search for Planet X, aka “Planet Nine,” the hypothetical Neptune-sized planet that may be orbiting our sun in a highly elongated orbit far beyond Pluto. They pointed their telescopes at Jupiter, hoping to study it while they searched for the mystery planet in the background beyond.

Jupiter’s moons are seen orbiting around its giant sphere.

As they studied, the team discovered the 2 new moons, which they named S/2016 J 1 and S/2017 J 1. The newly discovered moons are tiny, each only one mile wide. One orbits at about 13 million miles (21 million kilometers) and the other orbits at about 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) from Jupiter. No wonder no one noticed them before!

Four of Jupiter’s 69 moons are seen in front of the giant planet. We see Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

In 2003, there were 14 new moons discovered circling Jupiter, however, because there was insufficient information to define their exact orbits, astronomers lost track of them. Sheppard’s team found 5 of these “lost” moons during their Planet X search.

Io and Europa, two of Jupiter’s 69 moons are seen traveling in their orbits.

The team will continue observing for another year to see if they can identify the rest of the lost moons and well as additional new ones.

Io, Jupiter’s most volcanic moon passes in front of the planet’s colorful surface.

And the researchers studying Io want to learn more about the complex volcanic system under Loki Patera. They plan to further investigate during Io’s next alignment with Europa in 2021. The new study was detailed in the journal Nature.

Lava from volcanos flow over Io, Jupiter’s moon.

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Our moon is seen hanging in the sky, along with Jupiter and Venus, as the sun sets.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Image: Courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech. “Europa floats in front of Jupiter in this stunning view of the enigmatic ocean moon.”
Image: Taken by New Horizons spacecraft. Montage of images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io. Courtesy of NASA.
Image: Courtesy of NASA/ESA/Erich Karkoschka (University of Arizona). “Moons Visible on Jupiter.”
Image: Courtesy of NASA. “Jupiter.”
Image: Courtesy of NASA/JPL. “Montage of images taken by Voyager of Jupiter and four of its moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.”
Image: Courtesy of NASA/JPL. “Voyager 1 took photos of Jupiter and two of its satellites (Io, left, and Europa).”
Image: Courtesy of NASA. “The Galilean moon Io orbits Jupiter in a picture from the Voyager 1 spacecraft.”
Image: Courtesy of NASA. “New research suggests that waves of lava sweep across the molten lake Loki Patera on Jupiter's volcanically-active moon Io.”
Image: by Daphne Gonzalvez, of Night in Focus. Jupiter, the moon, and Venus.
Image: by BN App - Download now!
Image: Taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft and processed by citizen scientist Roman Tkachenko. Jupiter, Io and Europa. Courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Roman Tkachenko.