Thorough Astronomers Jupiter’s Smallest Moon, S/20120 J Two

Months S/20120 J 2 is the smallest moon of Jupiter. This month has been found in September 2010 along with other satellite is S/2010 J 1. Months S/20120 J 2 has a diameter of 2 km, while S/20120 J 1 has a larger diameter is 3 km. The scientists continued to observe Jupiter’s two months since the initial detection to collect information about the two natural satellites and their orbits.

S/20120 J 1 has an average distance of about 23.45 million miles to Jupiter and takes 2.02 years for the once around Jupiter. Months S/20120 J 2 has a distance of 21.01 million km and takes 1.69 years for the once around Jupiter.

“It’s nice to know that S/20120 J 2 is the smallest moon in the solar system and discovered from Earth,” says Mark Alexandersen from the University of British Columbia, as quoted from space.com, Wednesday (13/06/2012).

Irregular moon of Jupiter and Saturn’s orbit and the color seen from the expected form of a large moon which then was hit by a comet or asteroid in the past. S/20120 J 1 seems to originate from the Carme group, while S/20120 J 2 is likely to come from the Ananke group, the researchers say.

Jupiter has a moon that is very diverse and some of them have an irregular shape like S/20120 and S/20120 J 1 J 2. Then another large moon like Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Ganymede became the largest moon in the solar system with a diameter of 5268 km and is larger than the planet Mercury.

The study of the discovery and study the Moon S/20120 and S/20120 J 1 J 2 will be performed this summer in The Astronomical Journal.