Jupiter now formally has 12 extra moons. The Minor Planet Middle has printed orbits for 12 beforehand unreported small moons of Jupiter, bringing the gasoline large’s moon rely to 92. This now makes Jupiter the planet with essentially the most moons within the Photo voltaic System, though with new observing strategies, Saturn could quickly retake its lead. Pictured: A diagram of the orbits of moons round Jupiter, color-coded for various moon sorts. Picture credit score: Scott Sheppard.
JWST has noticed the rings of a tiny planetary physique. The house telescope noticed Chariklo, a 250-kilometer (160-mile) diameter icy object past the orbit of Saturn, because it handed in entrance of a star. JWST detected a set of rings round it that had been first noticed in 2013 by ground-based telescopes. Analyses of the JWST information are anticipated to yield new insights into this ring system.
NASA’s Lucy mission has added a brand new asteroid flyby goal. The mission staff discovered that the spacecraft would have already got a distant flyby of the small main-belt asteroid 1999 VD57 on its option to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids. They’ve adjusted Lucy’s trajectory barely so it might probably go a lot nearer to the asteroid and research it.
Two former NASA astronauts had been awarded the Congressional Area Medal of Honor. This award is among the many most prestigious an astronaut can obtain, and is usually awarded to individuals who assist NASA broaden its frontiers in house exploration. Former NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley each acquired the medal for flying in 2020 to the Worldwide Area Station on a SpaceX rocket within the first U.S. orbital crewed launch for the reason that Shuttle retirement in 2011.
