As of: February 24, 2024, 7:03 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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The ringed planet Uranus, surrounded by six of its 27 known moons.
The image was taken on February 6, 2023 by the James Webb Space Telescope.
© NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI)
The planets Neptune and Uranus are growing: a research team discovers three new moons, some of which orbit the planets at very great distances.
Washington DC – The universe is so big that research there is continually discovering unknown celestial bodies or previously unexpected phenomena.
Even in our solar system, new discoveries are still being made, as a current example shows: A research team led by Scott Sheppard (Carnegie Science) has discovered three new moons in the solar system.
Two of the moons orbit the planet Neptune, and a third newly discovered moon orbits Uranus.
The moons, whose discovery was published by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), are small and inconspicuous.
“The three newly discovered moons are the faintest ever found with ground-based telescopes around these two ice giant planets,” explains co-discoverer Sheppard in a statement.
“It took special image processing to detect these faint objects.”
In this image from the James Webb Space Telescope you can see the gas giant Neptune (below) in infrared light.
Easy to see: its rings and methane ice clouds (bright spots on the planet).
Seven of the then 14 known Neptune moons can also be seen.
© NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
The planets Uranus and Neptune have a total of three new moons
If you count the new moon called S/2023 U1, the ice giant Uranus now has 28 natural satellites.
The newly discovered celestial body has a diameter of eight kilometers and takes 680 days to orbit its planet once.
Like the other moons of Uranus, S/2023 U1 will be named after a Shakespearean character.
With the discovery, Neptune, the outermost planet in our solar system, now has 16 moons orbiting it.
The brighter moon of Neptune is temporarily designated S/2002 N5.
It has a diameter of 23 kilometers and takes almost nine years to orbit Neptune.
The weaker Neptune moon (S/2021 N1) is 14 kilometers wide and takes a full 27 years to orbit its planet once.
Like all other Neptune moons, the two new discoveries are said to have names from Greek mythology.
The previous moons are named after sea gods and nymphs.
planet |
Number of moons |
|---|---|
Mercury |
0 |
Venus |
0 |
Earth |
1 |
Mars |
2 |
Neptune |
16 |
Uranus |
28 |
Jupiter |
92 |
Saturn |
145 |
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Uranus and Neptune captured the moons by their gravity
The three newly discovered moons around Uranus and Neptune have distant, eccentric and tilted orbits.
According to experts, this suggests that they were captured by the planets' gravity during or shortly after the formation of the planets.
A better understanding of how the planets captured their moons can help astronomers learn more about the early years of our solar system and the movement of the outer planets.
The planet Saturn has the most moons in our solar system with 145 known moons.
Jupiter comes second with 92 confirmed moons.
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