Venus has no moons. Zero. Zip. This is quite unusual in our Solar System, as even the larger asteroids tend to have moons. The fact that we have satellites in permanent orbit which have not spotted any satellites means that we can be sure that Venus’s moons definitely do not exist. Comments? Questions? Why not mail me at uastronomer@gmail.com
Continue reading →Twenty three. When Galileo first saw Saturn‘s rings, his telescope was primitive enough that he could only see that there was something odd about Saturn’s shape. As time passed, and more astronomers used better telescopes to observe Saturn, a clearer and clear picture emerged. First it became clear that the mystery shape was a gigantic ring around the planet. Then a gap was noticed – the Cassini Division – increasing the count to two rings, followed by more gaps, and … Continue reading →
Just under ten hours. That’s right, Jupiter is not only the largest planet in the Solar System, its rotation period of 9.9 hours is also the fastest. So fast in fact, that the planet is visibly stretched out around its equator into an oval from the centrifugal force! Comments? Questions? Why not mail me at uastronomer@gmail.com
Continue reading →Update – 12 March 2025: Oh boy. A team of astronomers led from the University of Taiwan, the same team responsible for the previous update have just announced their discovery of an absolutely astonishing 128 new moons around Saturn. This brings the total to 274! For those who noticed that the difference between the October 2019 update and this one is more than 128, those same researchers had also detected a few extra moons in the time between announcements. But … Continue reading →
Jupiter is one of the five classical planets, and appears to the naked eye as one of the brightest “stars” in the sky. So I guess you could say it was discovered by the same person who discovered the Moon, or the Sun! More seriously, Jupiter has always been known, to all cultures around the world that watched the sky. Comments? Questions? Why not mail me at uastronomer@gmail.com
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