Solar System Moons: Discovery and Mythology PDF
Preview Solar System Moons: Discovery and Mythology
Jürgen Blunck Solar System Moons Discovery andMythology Jürgen Blunck Solar System Moons Discovery and Mythology 123 Dr.JürgenBlunck(1935–2008) Staehlerweg42 13465Berlin Germany ISBN 978-3-540-68852-5 e-ISBN 978-3-540-68853-2 DOI10.1007/978-3-540-68853-2 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009933626 ©Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2010 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.Allrightsarereserved,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialis concerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting, reproductiononmicrofilmorinanyotherway,andstorageindatabanks.Duplicationofthispublication orpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheGermanCopyrightLawofSeptember9, 1965,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Violationsare liabletoprosecutionundertheGermanCopyrightLaw. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,etc.inthispublicationdoesnotimply, evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevantprotectivelaws andregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Coverdesign:WMXDesignGmbH,Heidelberg,Germany Typesettingandproduction:le-texpublishingservicesGmbH,Leipzig,Germany Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Foreword V Foreword SpringerisproudtobepublishingDr.JürgenBlunck’slastbook,SolarSystemMoons, in the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Sadly, Dr. Blunck passed away dur- ingthecopy-editingphaseinsummer2008,leavingsometechnicalquestionsonthe manuscriptunanswered. Wehavesoughttocompletethebookascarefullyaspos- sibleandwouldliketogratefullyacknowledgethekindsupportoftheauthor’swife, Mrs.ZofiaBlunck. JürgenBlunckreceived hisPhDinhistoryattheUniversity ofKielin1961.His last employment before he retired in 2000 was as librarian senior councilor at the BerlinStateLibrary.InSeptember2002hewasnominatedasaconsulting member of the IAU Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). In his journalarticlesandbookpublicationshefocusedonthehistoryofplanetcartogra- phy.HewastheauthorofseveralbooksinEnglishandGerman,namely“Marsand Its Satellites”, “Götter in Planeten und Monden”, “Der rote Planet im Kartenbild”, “WilhelmBeer–GeniusderAstronomieundÖkonomie”,and“WiedieTeufelden Mondschwärzten”. Dr.Blunck’slastbook,SolarSystemMoons–DiscoveryandMythology,isanen- tertainingandeducatingworkcollectinginaconciseformat(heusedtorefertoitas a“manual”)theastronomicalfactsonthediscoveryofthesatellitesandringsofthe solarsystemplanetsandthemythologicalbackgroundsoftheirnames. TamaraBieseandRamonKhanna Springer-Verlag,Heidelberg Preface VII Preface Inthehistoryofmodernastronomicalresearch,thediscoveriesoftheplanetarysatel- liteshave,numericallyspeaking,represented(apartfromtheinflationaryincreasein knownminorplanets)itsgreatestsuccess.Thisisduetothespaceprobesthathave beensentintotheoutersolarsysteminrecentdecades,aswellas(andparticularly) advancesinCCDtechnology,whichhavemadeitpossibletodetectsatellitesthatare assmallasakilometerinsize.Fiftyyearsago,inorderofthesequenceofplanetary orbitsbeyondtheEarth’sorbit,twosatellitesofMars,elevensatellitesofJupiter,eight satellitesofSaturn,fivesatellitesofUranusandtwosatellitesofNeptunewereknown. Bytheyear 2007,thisnumberofknownsatellites hadgrowndramatically: besides thetwoMartiansatellites,63satellitesofJupiter,62satellitesofSaturn,14satellitesof Uranus,13satellitesofNeptune,andfoursatellitesoftheformerplanetPluto—which wasdowngraded toa“dwarfplanet”bytheGeneralAssembly oftheInternational AstronomicalUnioninPraguein2006—hadbeendiscovered.This“downgrading” alsohappenedtothenewlydiscoveredPluto-likeobjectnamedEris,adwarfplanet withoneknownsatellite. Nowthatsatellitesonlyakilometeracrosshavebeenfound,itisnaturaltocon- siderthedefinitionofasatellite.Theterm“satellite”wasfirstusedbyJohannesKepler inhispamphletNarratiodeIovisSatellitibus,Frankfurt1611.Officially,asatelliteis asolidobjectinorbitaroundaplanet,dwarfplanet,minorplanetortrans-Neptunian object. A natural satellite is sometimes referred to as a “moon” in popular usage. However, Earth’s own satellite is called “the Moon” in both scientific and popular speech.AllsatellitesaredesignatedwithRomannumeralsandaname.Ofcourse,this doesnotresolvethequestionofhowbigabodymustbetobeclassifiedasa“satel- lite.”Asatellitesmallerthanonekilometeracrosshasnotyetbeendiscovered,andit isnotclearwhethersuchsmallsatelliteswouldbegivenpropernames. Thenamingofasatelliteoccursinparallelwithitsdiscovery,althoughitcansome- timesbealengthyprocedure.Satellitebaptismwasandstillistheindisputableright ofthediscoverer,whovoluntarilyonlyproposesnamesthatareinlinewiththenames ofpreviouslydiscoveredsatellitesofthe(dwarf)planetaroundwhichthenewlydis- coveredsatelliteorbits. Twoexceptionshavebeenmadeduringthehistoryofsatellitedesignation.First, theinitialsevensatellitesofSaturnwerenamedbyWilliamHerschel’ssonJohn,after theinitialuseofnumbersalonetodenotethemcausedconfusion. ItwasalsoJohn Herschelwhoin1851namedfourhithertounnamedsatellitesofUranus.Second,all ofthesatellites ofJupiter discovered between 1892and 1974,whichhadremained unnamed according tothe explicitwishesofthediscoverers, werenevertheless as- signed namesbytheInternational Astronomical Unionin1975;thesenameswere figuresfromthecourtofJupiter/ZeusinGreco-Romanmythology. From 1919 onwards, the responsibility for deciding uponsatellite names rested upontheshouldersoftheInternational Astronomical Union, beforethisresponsi- Preface VIII bilitywasshiftedin1973toaspecialWorkingGroupforPlanetarySystemNomen- clature(WGPSN). Thestepsinvolvedinnaminganewlydiscoveredobjectaccompanyingaplanetare fixedaccordingtointernational guidelines.Theobjectisreportedbythediscoverer totheCentralBureauforAstronomicalTelegrams(CBAT)inCambridge,MA,USA, anditthenreceivesatemporarydesignation,suchasS/2007S1forasatelliteofSaturn orR/2004S1foraringofSaturn. Havingbeendesignated inthisway,theobjectis announcedintheIAUCirculars,aseriesofpostcard-sizedannouncements. Namesfornewlydiscovered satellites aredeveloped jointly bytheWGPSNand theIAUCommission20(PositionsandMotionsofMinorPlanets,CometsandSatel- lites).Namesarenotassignedtosatellitesuntiltheirorbitalelementsarereasonably wellknown.Assoonasthenewsatelliteisconfirmed(e.g.,byrediscovery),thedis- coverersuggestsanamethatisthendiscussedbytheWGPSN;inthiscaseinitially byitsOuterSolarSystemTaskGroupandthenbyitsothermembers.Thispanelre- portsdirectly tothe IAU’sExecutive Committee, after whichitsrecommendations areapprovedbytheGeneralAssembly,whichmeetseverythreeyears. Greco-Roman names dominate satellite nomenclature, and the Roman version prevailsamongGreco-Romannames. TherulesfornamingthesatellitesofSaturnchangedsomewhatin2000.Themany irregularsatellitesdiscoveredinthatyearweregroupedaftertheirsemi-majoraxes, theirinclinations andtheireccentricities, andtheyreceived namesfromotherlan- guages,mainlythenamesofgiants.AnInuitgroup,aGallicgroupandaNorsegroup were suggested by the discoverers and adopted by the International Astronomical Union.Themythsoftherelevantpeoplesandevencharactersfromchildrenbooks wereusedtonamethesesatellites. Thismanualcontainschronologicaloverviewsofthediscoveriesofsatellitesand rings,backgroundinformationonhowtheywerenamed,andalsoselectionsfromthe sourcesfromwhichthenamesofthesatellitesoriginated.Finally,platescontaining dataontheorbitalelementsanddiscoveriesofthesatellitesareprovided. Furtherinformationontheplanetarysatellites,especiallythenamesoftheirmany topographicsurfacefeatures,isavailableontheInternet(seetheGazetteerofPlane- taryNomenclature). Thesatellitesofminorplanetsarenottakenintoaccountinthismanual. Berlin,January2008 JürgenBlunck Contents IX Contents TheSatellitesandRingsofthePlanets TheSatellitesofMars.................................................... 3 DiscoveringandNamingtheSatellites................................ 4 SourcesofSatelliteNames ........................................... 5 TheSatellitesofJupiter.................................................. 7 TheSatellitesandRingsofJupiter ......................................... 8 DiscoveringandNamingtheSatellites................................ 8 DiscoveringandNamingtheRings ................................... 19 SourcesofSatelliteNames ........................................... 20 TheSatellitesofSaturn.................................................. 53 TheSatellitesandRingsofSaturn.......................................... 54 DiscoveringandNamingtheSatellites................................ 54 DiscoveringandNamingtheRings ................................... 62 SourcesofSatelliteNames ........................................... 66 TheSatellitesofUranus ................................................. 91 TheSatellitesandRingsofUranus ......................................... 92 DiscoveringandNamingtheSatellites................................ 92 DiscoveringandNamingtheRings ................................... 95 SourcesofSatelliteNames ........................................... 98 TheSatellitesofNeptune................................................ 111 TheSatellitesandRingsofNeptune........................................ 112 DiscoveringandNamingtheSatellites................................ 112 DiscoveringandNamingtheRings ................................... 115 SourcesofSatelliteNames ........................................... 116 TheSatellitesoftheDwarfPlanets TheSatellitesofPluto ................................................... 127 DiscoveringandNamingtheSatellites................................ 128 SourcesofSatelliteNames ........................................... 129 Contents X TheSatelliteofEris ...................................................... 133 DiscoveringandNamingtheSatellite................................. 134 SourceoftheSatelliteName ......................................... 135 References .............................................................. 137 IndexofSatellites ....................................................... 139 1 The Satellites and Rings of the Planets
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