Today, astronomers announced the discovery of 12 new moons around Jupiter. Inverse writer Matthew Phelan sat down with the Carnegie Institute’s Scott S. Sheppard who led the team that located the Jovian moons to tell us what this means for our solar systems and why one of the moons is especially odd. Two of the new dozen were uncovered in the spring of 2017 by Sheppard’s team bringing Jupiter’s moon count to 69 (nice), which means we now know there are 79 moons orbiting Jupiter.
Questions Include: How did we find these new Jovian moons and why was it a serendipitous finding? What is the criteria that determines whether or not an object is a moon? How many new moons around Jupiter did we find? How do we detect new moons? What are Trojan asteroids? What are prograde and retrograde moons? What is this new “oddball” moon Valetudo and why is it different? Will there be more moons discovered around Jupiter? Is there a minimum size for a moon? What do retrograde and prograde objects tell us about the formation of our solar system? How do moons in our solar system get their names?
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Follow Dr. Scott S. Sheppard on the Web:
https://carnegiescience.edu/scientist/scott-sheppard
https://sites.google.com/carnegiescience.edu/sheppard/home?authuser=0
About Inverse:
Inverse sparks curiosity about the future. We explore the science of anything, innovations that shape tomorrow and ideas that stretch our minds. Our goal is to motivate the next generation to build a better world.
Credits:
‘I Need My Space’ is an Inverse production hosted by Steve Ward, produced by Sam Riddell, and executive produced by Hannah Margaret Allen and Weston Green. This episode was also produced and hosted by Matthew Phelan. Our intro and outro music was created by Andrew Olivares.
Steve: @stevejohnhenryw
Andrew: https://soundcloud.com/andrewo
Other Topics Discussed Include: Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9, The Jupiter Trojans, The Kuiper Belt, The Galilean Moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Himalia, Valetudo
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