Astronomers have discovered an unknown small moon in the solar system, a rocky body orbiting a small asteroid near Jupiter.
If the rocky moon is confirmed as the right one, it will be one of the smallest moons ever observed.
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The tiny moon was discovered by scientists working on NASA’s Lucy mission, which sends a space probe to study some of the Trojan asteroids: two massive groups of space rocks on each side of Jupiter in its orbit around the Sun.
The Lucy probe was launched on October 16, 2021, and will reach the Trojan asteroids in late 2027, following a quick stop in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Until then, Lucy’s mission scientists are trying to learn more regarding some of these mysterious rocks to help determine where the probe might be most useful.
On March 27, Lucy’s smallest Trojan target, known as Polymele, passed in front of a distant star, allowing mission scientists to accurately measure the size of the space rock by observing how much starlight the asteroid blocked out as it passed.
However, the team also noticed an unexpected later and smaller image like a second asteroid following in Polymele’s wake.
After reviewing the data, the team concluded that the second point “must be a satellite,” principal investigator Mark Bowie, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a NASA statement.
The newly discovered moon is regarding 3 miles (5 km) in diameter and separated from Polymele which is 17 miles (27 km) wide by a distance of regarding 125 miles (201 km). At the time of observation, Polymele was regarding 480 million miles (772 million km) from Earth.
The term “moon” can refer to any naturally occurring solid object orbiting a planet, dwarf planet, or asteroid. More than 200 moons have been identified in the solar system (not including asteroid moons), but the actual number is likely much higher, according to NASA.
Researchers can only make fleeting observations of the Polymele satellite, so its orbital path is highly uncertain. As a result, the space rock cannot yet be officially identified as a moon or properly named.
But the researchers are confident that when the Lucy probe reaches Polymele, the spacecraft will be able to gather enough data to designate it as a true moon.
This is not the first time that Lucy mission scientists have spotted a moon behind the Trojan asteroid.
And in 2021, the team discovered a 0.6-mile (1 kilometer) wide satellite orbiting Eurybates, which will be Lucy’s first targets from Troy, following analyzing data collected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, according to Space.com. On this occasion, researchers determined the orbital path of the moon and officially named it Queta.
Source: Science Alert
