Neptune Moon Discovery Confirmed After 21 years

Back in 2002 I was part of a team of scientists looking for irregular moons of the Giant Planets of our Solar System. The team discovered moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and I was fortunate to be part of the discovery team of two Uranian and four Neptunian moons. This week we were able to add another Neptunian moon to the discovery tally, when, after 21 years, the moon designated S/2002 N5 finally was announced by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). The first observations of this irregular moon was captured on August 14th, 2002, by Matt Holman, JJ Kavelaars, Wes Fraser and me, using the CTIO 4m Blanco Telescope (now operated by NOIRLab). It received a second night of observations on September 3rd, 2002, by the team of P. Rousselot, O. Mousis and B. Gladman, using the ESO Very Large Telescope. However, due to the uncertainty in its orbit the moon was not announced but the observations were curated by the MPC. It took another 21 years before the MPC received additional observation ranging from September 3rd, 2021, to November 4th, 2023, collected by teams including S. Sheppard, M. Brozovic, R. Jacobsen, D. J. Tholen, C. Trujillo, and P. S. Lykawka, using the 6.5m Magellan-Baade telescope at Las Campanas Observatory and the 8.2m Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea. These observations allowed the object to announced with a pro-grade orbit similar to that of NXI Sao and NXII Laomedia.

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