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posted by n1 on Thursday June 15 2017, @01:54AM   Printer-friendly

A survey searching for objects in the Kuiper Belt has found two undiscovered moons of Jupiter. Jupiter now has 69 known moons:

Until recently the cataloged satellites totaled 67 in number. But only the innermost 15 of these orbit Jupiter in a prograde sense (in the direction of the planet's spin). The rest are retrograde, and are likely captured objects - other pieces of the solar system's solid inventory that strayed into Jupiter's gravitational grasp.

That population of outer moons is mostly small stuff, only a few are 20-60 kilometers in diameter, most are barely 1-2 kilometers in size, and increasingly difficult to spot. Now astronomers Scott Sheppard, David Tholen, and Chadwick Trujillo have added two more; bringing Jupiter's moon count to 69.

These additions are also about 1-2 km in size, and were spotted in images that were part of a survey for much more distant objects out in the Kuiper Belt. Jupiter just happened to be conveniently close in the sky at the time. The moons are S/2016 J1 and S/2017 J1, and are about 21 million km and 24 million km from Jupiter.

The moons are also known as Jupiter LIV and Jupiter LIX, and are members of the Pasiphae group. They are estimated to be about 3 and 2 km in diameter respectively.

Also at Popular Mechanics.


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  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:29PM (2 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:29PM (#525966) Homepage Journal
    Good job on the moon hunting, guys. 69 is a great number, one of the best numbers of all time. But I'm liking 71 a lot, so far. Don't be afraid to find a couple more, to find 2 more moons. Because 71 is totally great. If I'd stopped at 69 I'd be the Number 1 guy on TV, the biggest star on TV. But I wouldn't be your President. Which would be very, very sad for the U.S.A. #TrumpTV [twitter.com] #TrumpVodka [twitter.com] #TRUMP2020 [twitter.com] #WINNING [twitter.com] #MakeAmericaGreatAgain [twitter.com]
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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 15 2017, @05:53PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday June 15 2017, @05:53PM (#526112)

    If you'd stopped at 69, who would be doing your job today?

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday June 15 2017, @07:06PM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday June 15 2017, @07:06PM (#526150) Homepage Journal
      It would be whoever I endorsed. And let me tell you, I might have endorsed Rudy. I might have told Rudy to run for President, if I didn't run myself. And he would have, if I'd told him to. He does what I say. I like that in a man or in a woman. Especially in a woman. Rudy Giuliani, great Jew, one of the greatest of the Jews. Who are one of the greatest peoples today or ever. Great with money. But I ran, so I'm the President. And Rudy is helping me out. He helped with my travel ban (I call it a Muslim ban, but the lawyers want me to call it a travel ban to be politically correct). And he has been helping me with the cyber, with making the cyber secure. Smart guy, he understands the cyber very well. EMAIL and everything. He's always doing EMAILS. President Giuliani, can you imagine that? Crazy! #TRUMP2020 [twitter.com] #WINNING [twitter.com]