SMALL MOON JUPITER: GUESTS FROM THE PAST

In the giant Jovian moons discovered a couple who were, respectively, 65th and 66th in an impressive command of his companions.
The objects S/2011 J1 and S/2011 J2 steel and the smallest of the known satellites of Jupiter, across their dimensions do not exceed 1 km. In doing so they rotate at fairly far from the planet, and a complete turn around they need to, respectively, 580 and 762 days.

The honor of opening by the American astronomer Scott Sheppard (Scott Sheppard), working with The optical telescope in Chile Magellan Observatory, Las Campanas: observation of the moons he had in September last year. According to the scientist, the new satellites - the first one we found small objects, numerous swarm of swirling on the distant outskirts of the giant planet. Sheppard adds: ... But until recent years, technology did not allow us to detect such a small and faint body at a distance ...

After their discovery is confirmed by independent observations ( Sheppard hopes that this problem will be solved this year ), he is a pioneer, will be able to give them names that will be formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union. Under the rules, the names of these should be linked with the Roman Jupiter, Greek or his ... The scientist observes, not without irony that the huge number of known satellites of giant planets can be in a difficult situation: apparently, all that the Roman and Greek names (Europe, Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and so. ) Have been exhausted. He believes that, as expected to open dozens of moons of Jupiter, the rules may need to simplify.

Sheppard believe that such small objects should be a huge amount, and the other giant planets of the solar system, Saturn and Neptune. We just do not know of their existence, as both Saturn and Neptune are located further away from us. ...

Interestingly, as S/2011 J1, and S/2011 J2 are irregular satellites having uncharacteristic of the orbits of these objects, elongated, retrograde. This suggests that they were not, like our Moon formed from the wreckage of their world, and just flew by and were captured by the attraction of.

In today's solar system, such an event - a large, almost incredibly rare, so S/2011 J1 and S/2011 J2, apparently, had been ... This makes the moon Sheppard found particularly interesting for further investigation - because they are witnesses of our common past, little changed since those early days.