Posted on 07/15/2013 1:16:22 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Chalk up one more moon for Neptune.
NASA announced the discovery of Neptune’s 14th moon Monday. The Hubble Space Telescope captured the moon as a white dot in photos of Neptune on the outskirts of our solar system.
The new moon—Neptune’s tiniest at just 12 miles across—is designated S/2004 N 1. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Thank goodness it wasn’t that “other” planet.
I remember when we thought Jupiter had only 12 moons, and now Neptune has topped that old number.
Don’t talk about Uranus, Ben. This is a family web site after all....
While 12 miles across is tiny for a moon, that 12 mile diameter sphere has to potential to hold an incredible amount of potential resources, all available with negligible gravity penalty.
>> Thank goodness it wasn’t that “other” planet.
You don’t get off that easy; I read that Neptune PULLED that moon from Uranus.
Interesting that the new moon was spotted via the Hubble and not by any probe that has cruised past the planet.
Or maybe it was. The article says the object is found in Hubble photos going back to 2004, but wasn’t noticed until now.
That’s no moon.
Hubble may be the single best investment for humanity so far...
“The article says the object is found in Hubble photos going back to 2004, but wasn’t noticed until now.”
I find that to be somewhat strange. That’s more than nine years and nobody picked it out? I guess they were busy conducting their new duties of mozlim outreach, so their legitimate work had to suffer.
Plus you would think Voyager 1 and/or V2 would have shown something as well.
Yikes!
That’s usually where I get my statistics.
What to name it? Ariel? Flounder? Ursula?
Funny thing is, this newest discovered moon of Neptune is ONLY 12 miles in diameter. AMAZING ability to image small objects. I cannot believe the era we're living in. These are great times my father could only dream of.
Interesting....
Those things circling Uranus aren’t moons.
More info here: http://www.universetoday.com/103494/researchers-find-a-new-moon-around-neptune-in-hubble-data/#more-103494
“It took sharp and patient eyes, but researcher Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute has found a tiny moon orbiting Neptune that’s never been seen before.”
Now, what are the SETI people looking for?
That joke and our solar system came into being at around the same time. :-)
“Those things circling Uranus aren’t moons.”
Will they name it “Dingleberry?”
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