DISCOVERY OF TWO ADDITIONAL JOVIAN IRREGULARS

2012 
We report on the discovery of two previously undetected irregular satellites of Jupiter (S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2) during recovery observations of other known satellites. S/2010 J 1 was discovered with the Palomar 200 inch Hale telescope on September 7 UT of 2011, while S/2010 J 2 was discovered on September 8 with the 3.5 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The satellites have r-band magnitudes of 23.2 {+-} 0.3 and 24.0 {+-} 0.3, for S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2, respectively, indicating diameters of {approx}2-3 km. Both S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2 are on bound retrograde orbits. Time-averaged integrated orbits suggest the association to the Carme and Ananke groups, respectively. Given that the satellites were discovered within a small field during the routine observations of the previously known irregulars, their discovery agrees with predictions that other moons of similar sizes remain undetected in the Jovian Hill sphere.
    • Correction
    • Source
    • Cite
    • Save
    • Machine Reading By IdeaReader
    3
    References
    9
    Citations
    NaN
    KQI
    []