The moons are the first to be discovered on Neptune since the Voyager 2 spacecraft approached it in 1989, and the first to be discovered by observations from the ground since 1949
Astronomers have discovered three previously unknown moons orbiting Neptune. This brings the number of known moons around the distant gas giant to 11. This is what the Howard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said this week.
The moons are the first to be discovered on Neptune since the Voyager 2 spacecraft approached it in 1989, and the first to be discovered by observations from the ground since 1949, the center said.
The three new moons were difficult to detect because their diameter ranges from 30-40 kilometers and their distance from the Sun makes them 100 times fainter than anything visible to the human eye from Earth.
The researchers used several telescopes - the Blanco telescope in the city of Cro-Tollo. It is an inter-American observatory in Chile, and the Canadian-French-Hawaii telescope in Hawaii. The international team made long exposures of the sky around Neptune. The new moons appear as points of light.
Earlier, eight moons were discovered around Neptune. The two largest are Triton discovered in 1846 and Nereid discovered in 1949 - they are also the most unusual of the moons. Triton orbits Neptune in the opposite direction to the planet's rotation, and Nerid orbits Neptune in an extremely elliptical orbit.
The six regular moons were discovered by Voyager during its encounter with Neptune. The three new moons were missed by Voyager because they were blind and because of their great distance from Neptune. said in the message.
