Hubble and Another Moon!

Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California has discovered 14th known moon of planet Neptune using Hubble Space Telescope's data of Neptune obtained in 2009!  This moon is 12 miles in diameter, the smallest and the faintest of the Neptune moons.  It is so faint that even escaped detection by Voyager 2 Spacecraft in 1989 that flew by Neptune to survey this planet.  Showalter detected this moon on July 1, when it was 65400 miles away from Neptune!  This moon is currently referred to as S/2004 N 1, and orbits the planet, based on Showalter calculations, once every 23 hours!

Yet another reminder that we are just beginning to know our own backyard, the solar system, and that Hubble remains one of the major innovations of the last century with high, if not the highest scientific impact, among other innovations.  To learn about Hubble discoveries to date, please visit here. 

"This composite Hubble Space Telescope picture shows the location of a newly discovered moon, designated S/2004 N 1, orbiting Neptune. The black and white image was taken in 2009 with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 in visible light. Hubble took the color inset of Neptune on August 2009. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Showalter/SETI Institute"

To learn more about newly discovered Moon of Neptune, please visit here.

Reference:

[1] http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-hubble-finds-new-neptune-moon/#.UelHpRaUdjC
[2] http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/