Amateur astronomer discovers a new moon around Jupiter
Recommended for Middle Grades
An amateur astronomer named Kai Ly has discovered an unknown moon that is orbiting Jupiter. An amateur is a person who takes part in a sport or an activity for pleasure, not for money as a job.
Kai used old telescope images to find the unknown moon. This moon is at a distance of more than 600 million km from Earth. However, this is not the first time for Kai. He also discovered four lost moons of Jupiter last year. Now, with his new discovery, Jupiter has a total of 80 moons.
The Minor Planet Mailing List(MPML) said that this new moon is the first planetary moon to be discovered by an amateur astronomer.
What is the Minor Planet Mailing List (MPML)?
Minor Planet Mailing List is an online community of world’s leading amateur astronomers. It is an active list for minor planet community.
Discovery of the new moon
Kai Ly used the same data set that he used to discover the lost moons of Jupiter, to discover the new moon. He found the new moon in the Carme Cluster. This is a group of 22 space rocks with similar orbits. NASA believes that the Carme cluster used to be an asteroid that is now broken into smaller parts.
NASA had originally spotted the new moon. But Kai was the one who confirmed that the object is a moon and it is orbiting around Jupiter.
There are many more interesting news articles and information on space for all you kids. We have news and stories on stars, telescopes, galaxies, planets, exoplanets, black holes and much more. Keep reading our space news for children on Curious Times. And of course, keep your curiosity sky high!
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