Arizona astronomers discover 17th moon orbiting Jupiter
ASSOCITED PRESS

TUSCON, ARIZONA, JULY 23: Astronomers at the University of Arizona and their Massachusetts colleagues say they have found a 17th moon orbiting Jupiter.

If confirmed, the 4.8-kms-diameter moon would be the smallest known satellite of a major planet and the first Jovian moon discovered in 21 years.

"It's exciting. When you realize that you were the first person to lay eyes on something that had not been seen before, that's kind of a good feeling," University of Arizona astronomer Jeff Larsen, who made the first observations of the moon in October, said in Saturday's Arizona daily Star.

Larsen works with the university's space watch project, which uses a 79-year-old Kitt Peak telescope to survey the solar system for comets and asteroids.

When Jupiter was less than 595 million kms from earth - about as close to our planet as it gets during its 12-year journey around the sun - the observers found what appeared to be a tiny moon.

The group contacted the Smithsonian astrophysical observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and scientists there analysed the data and reached the same conclusion.

The search was spurred by the May 1999 discovery of an 18th moon circling Uranus. That find was made by another University of Arizona researcher, Erich Karkoschka, who reviewed 13-year-old pictures from the Voyager 2 space craft.

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