Discovery of Two Additional Jovian Irregulars
Résumé
We report on the discovery of two previously undetected irregular satellites of Jupiter (S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2) during recovery observations of other known satellites. S/2010 J 1 was discovered with the Palomar 200 inch Hale telescope on September 7 UT of 2011, while S/2010 J 2 was discovered on September 8 with the 3.5 m Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. The satellites have r-band magnitudes of 23.2 ± 0.3 and 24.0 ± 0.3, for S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2, respectively, indicating diameters of ∼2–3 km. Both S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2 are on bound retrograde orbits. Time-averaged integrated orbits suggest the association to the Carme and Ananke groups, respectively. Given that the satellites were discovered within a small field during the routine observations of the previously known irregulars, their discovery agrees with predictions that other moons of similar sizes remain undetected in the Jovian Hill sphere.