Saturn overtakes Jupiter as planet with most moons
Saturn has overtaken Jupiter as the planet with the most moons, according to US researchers. A team discovered a haul of 20 new moons orbiting the ringed planet, bringing its total to 82; Jupiter, by contrast, has 79 natural satellites. The moons were discovered using the Subaru telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii.
Each of the newly discovered objects in orbit around Saturn is about 5km (three miles) in diameter; 17 of them orbit the planet "backwards". This is known as a retrograde direction. The other three moons orbit in a prograde direction - the same direction as Saturn rotates. Two of the prograde moons take about two years to travel once around the ringed planet. The more-distant retrograde moons and one of the prograde moons each take more than three years to complete an orbit.
Also at Carnegie Science.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:36PM (11 children)
That's no moon...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 09 2019, @01:36PM (10 children)
What qualifies as a moon anyway?
3 miles diameter might be big enough for a robot to plant a teeny tiny flag on. But whose flag? SpaceX, Microsoft, Amazon, Coke?
Being in retrograde orbit may enable being able to bypass multi factor authentication even if the FIB doesn't warn about it.
Sputnik was called "a moon" and it was a bit smaller than 3 miles diameter.
Time for some caffeine.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday October 09 2019, @02:29PM (3 children)
Sputnik was only called a moon by the media, it is not just today that science reporting in the media is completely garbage.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 09 2019, @02:51PM (1 child)
But science can be controversial, and the media will cover that. Even manufacture it.
You can't say the sun rises in the East! FoxNews has a list of experts who claim the sun rises in the West! So it is controversial and not established fact!
CO2 levels are not rising, despite measurements. The climate is not changing, despite measurements -- because controversy!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday October 09 2019, @05:50PM
AFAIKT, the sun doesn't rise in the East, it rises somewhere a bit South of East. I suspect, however, that Australian observers would differ with me.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @07:17PM
You're right, they should have called it after one of the many other things orbiting the Earth at the time.
(Score: 4, Funny) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday October 09 2019, @03:11PM (2 children)
Clearly we need a new category: dwarf moon.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 09 2019, @04:00PM
Also dwarf moon headed the wrong direction in life.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 09 2019, @05:33PM
I suggested Gimli as a name...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday October 09 2019, @06:41PM
moon - a celestial body that orbits a (major or minor) planet.
celestial body - natural objects visible in the sky
So no explicit size limit, but artificial satellites are excluded.
Of course, without a size limit any pebble could be considered a moon - but only if it's visible in the sky. Sky generally atmosphere - probably Earth's - and the distortion probably sets some definite lower limit on the apparent angular size of a celestial body.
Alternately it might be interpreted as "would this object be visible to the naked eye from the ground/atmosphere surface of its primary" - though of course that includes lots of assumptions about the eyes of the observer.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday October 10 2019, @11:09PM
I agree. Hmmm..... I think I'll have a Coke. And then order a SpaceX model on Amazon using Microsoft Edge. Maybe then buy a used Saturn and I'll then get a movie starring Sam Rockwell if I can find an appropriate one.
I have the best original thoughts!
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday October 10 2019, @11:16PM
Both buttocks and at least 30% visiblity of the gluteal cleft. With intentional display (cf. Gluteus Plumbarius, "Moonlet"). Bonus points if the barycenter also qualifies as bariatric.
This sig for rent.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:38PM (7 children)
Oblig...
Also, ur anus.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 09 2019, @01:30PM (6 children)
That adolescent joke is old. Adults pronounce the planet correctfully as: URINE-us.
Please, no snickering in the peanut gallery.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday October 09 2019, @02:34PM (2 children)
Na, that's the constellation Urion:
https://www.wallyschirra.com/gemini.htm [wallyschirra.com]
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/b9a865b7-120d-4143-9c00-e4142d89eb21 [getyarn.io]
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 09 2019, @02:55PM (1 child)
Too bad Agena was lost when the thruster defect was in the capsule.
Are two stars enough to be called a constellation? How about only one star?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Informative) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday October 09 2019, @05:08PM
Yeah but it's an entirely bullshit constellation:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canis_Minor [wikipedia.org]
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday October 09 2019, @02:54PM (1 child)
Best to avoid any offense by simply referring to it as The Other Neptune.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @11:14PM
Just change the name to urectum and people will stop the adolescent jokes.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @05:38PM
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:42PM (1 child)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @12:49PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimas_(moon) [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 09 2019, @02:47PM (1 child)
Given that Saturn has very low density, it would seem that any solid core would necessarily be quite small compared to the gas giant's size. But from another source: [space.com]
"Like Jupiter, Saturn is suspected to have a rocky core surrounded by hydrogen and helium. However, the question of how solid the core might be is still up for debate. Though composed of rocky material, the core itself may be liquid"
So how would solid objects from a young solar system interact with a liquid core, if the core were indeed liquid? Would they dissolve, or could a solution be formed? Liquid on the rocks?
We should not be judgemental of their natural inclinations even when most are inclined differently.
The intoxicated ones are orbiting in the wrong direction. Hmmm, liquid core?
I think that expression should stay in the 1960's / 70's.
When young bodies get too close you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. And they might become unable to separate. Even if the other bodies suggest they should separate.
Maybe we need a new SN poll?
Name them after GitHub projects. Or Microsoft operating systems.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by In hydraulis on Wednesday October 09 2019, @04:54PM
But no matter how hard he reached, no matter how desperately he cued the audience, nobody laughed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @09:30PM
is the way it is reported.
"Saturn has overtaken Jupiter as the planet with the most moons, according to US researchers."
Have they been thinking too much about if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there does it make a sound? They could have written "known moons" but they didn't, this is deliberate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 09 2019, @11:10PM
Those are dwarf moons. Not real moons because we just can't emotionally handle the existence of twenty more moons. So let's just arbitrarily redefine moon and call the rest dwarf moons.