Some Recently Discovered Moons of Jupiter are Weirder Than Others
Scott Sheppard’s astronomy division at the Carnegie Institution for Science hunts for objects in very distant parts of our Solar System. Sometimes, however, they’re able to scour areas closer—depending on the orbit of planets intersecting with their work. When the latter scenario arose with Jupiter, Sheppard and his colleagues discovered 10 new moons—bringing the grand total of satellite bodies to 79. A few of these 10 happen to be quite distinct: all of them measure between one and three kilometers across and seven of them travel in a rotation counter to the planet’s—making them retrograde moons. One lone moon–of the group of 10–travels in opposition to the aforementioned retrograde moons. Because of this, a collision could be in its future. These discoveries are quite telling with regard to the formation of the planet itself. Read more at Nature.
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