Astronomers have discovered three new moons in our solar system. Two of them orbit Neptune and the other orbits Uranus. One of Neptune's new moons takes 28 years to orbit.
The three newly discovered moons are very small, the research institute reported Carnegie Science In the ad. The diameter of the Uranus moon is 8 kilometers, and it is the smallest moon discovered on this planet. The diameters of Neptune's moons are 23 and 14 kilometers, respectively.
With the discovery of new moons, 16 moons of Neptune were discovered. It is known that Uranus has 28 moons. This is the first time in twenty years that a new moon of Uranus has been discovered.
The least bright moon of Neptune is the moon that makes the longest known orbit around its parent planet. The orbit takes 28 years. The slightly brighter moon takes 9 years to rotate.
Uranus's new moon takes a slightly shorter time of 680 days, but it is still very long compared to our moon. For comparison: our Moon revolves around the Earth in 28 days. The elliptical orbit of the three moons is relatively far from the parent planet.
Astronomers superimposed telescope images to discover it
The newly discovered moons had not been seen before due to their small size and lack of brightness. For this discovery, scientists used telescopes in Chile and Hawaii. Telescopes have captured many different images of the universe.
By superimposing and studying these telescope images, the astronomers saw points of light that were slightly further away in each image. This allowed them to discover the orbit of the three moons.
The moons have not been named yet. Neptune's new moons, like the names already known, will be named after the Nereids, sea goddesses from Greek mythology. As usual, the moon Uranus is named after a character from one of Shakespeare's plays.
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