At the time of posting, the title of the article on the BBC website was: “Saturn’s sixtieth moon discovered” .
(ducking)
< |:)~
Two More Moons for Jupiter Make 60In past few weeks nearly a dozen new planetary moons have been discovered -- two of which were certified by the International Astronomical Union on April 12th and 14th. The latest pair, dubbed S/2003 J19 and S/2003 J20, were located using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. J19 was spotted by a four-member group led by Brett Gladman (University of British Columbia); J20 was identified by Scott S. Sheppard and David C. Jewitt (University of Hawaii), along with Jan Klenya (Cambridge University).
April 14, 2003
Scott S. Sheppard
Hints of Unseen Moons in Saturn’s Rings
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 16 November 2004 06:25 am ET
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/saturn_update_041116.html
Twelve More Moons Around Saturn Act In Strange WaysThe 12 newfound moons are in irregular orbits that suggest they are the collisional remnants of larger parent moons, once securely captured in, but later blasted from, their saturnian orbits... The 12 new-found satellites are irregular -- meaning they orbit outside the plane of Saturn's equator -- and it appears that their orbits cluster in three, possibly four, distinct groups, said Carl W. Hergenrother of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL)... Astronomers in 1997 and 1999 discovered five irregular satellites around Uranus, and in 1999-2000 discovered another 12 irregular satellites around Jupiter, previously known to have eight... The most probable theory is that each cluster is the remains of a once-intact moon smashed by a collision sometime after the planets were formed, according to their analysis... Saturn must have captured the original parent moons during planetary formation, as the objects passed through Saturn's surrounding proto-planetary gas cloud, Hergenrother said... An alternative theory is that the moons were captured when Saturn suddenly increased in mass -- in which case the moons would all be prograde, moving around the planet in the same direction as the planet moves around the sun... "But we are seeing just as many retrograde as prograde irregular moons as Saturn," Hergenrother said. Objects captured as moons would move in either prograde or retograde orbits depending on their direction as they passed through and were slowed by proto-Saturn's gas cloud.
by Lori Stiles
2001
The Devil planted that moon to make us question our faith!
Is a New Moon News?Here's a question a few of us have been wondering: when do discoveries stop becoming news? We once dutifully reported every extrasolar planet discovery as it was made. After all, finding worlds beyond our solar system is the stuff of science-fiction dreams. But then the number of exoplanets crossed 50, then 100, then 200, and is now at 246. A similar argument can be made for Martian and lunar meteorites. At some point — who knows exactly when — they stopped becoming "news."
by David Tytell
Sky & Telescope
Now NASA is reporting that Cassini spotted another moon around Saturn. That brings Saturn's family of satellites to 60. It currently has a temporary designation, S/2007 S4, but it will most likely earn one of those hard-to-pronounce names that all the new Saturnian satellites receive. If you want to see it move, NASA posted a cool animation showing the discovery.
The find, located inside the ring plane, doesn't place Saturn higher in the standings; Jupiter is still king with 63 satellites. But I suspect that won't last for long. Cassini is on patrol and there isn't a spacecraft in the hunt around Jupiter.