'Breakneck speed' mini moon hurtles around Neptune at 20,000mph

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

'Breakneck speed' mini moon hurtles around Neptune at 20,000mph

Astronomers confirm orbit of tiny moon Hippocamp via multiple images from Hubble

Ian Sample Science editor
Wed 20 Feb 2019 19.02 GMT

A miniature moon that whizzes around Neptune at breakneck speed has been tracked by astronomers working from the US.

The speck of a moon, no more than 21 miles across, hurtles around the distant gas giant at about 20,000 miles an hour, 10 times faster than our own moon circles Earth, scientists said.

“This is the smallest known moon around the farthest known planet in the solar system,” said Mark Showalter, a senior research scientist at the Seti Institute, in Mountain View, California.

The scientists first saw the moon in enhanced images from the Hubble space telescope, which showed the tiny body 65,000 miles away from Neptune. It orbits the planet once every 22 hours.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/feb/20/scientists-build-picture-of-super-fast-mini-moon-of-neptune

[htuttle]

1. That's no moon!

Just kidding.

But that's actually a bit faster than the Space Shuttle was in orbit (at 17,500 mph or so).

[DontBooVote]

2. Cruising Neptune's Circuit at Satellite Speed