For
the first time in decades, a new tiny moon has been found in orbit around the
gas giant Neptune, according to a study published Wednesday in the
journal Nature. Hippocamp, now known as Neptune's smallest moon, is
named for the sea monster from Greek mythology, said to have a fish's tail
attached to a horse's body. It's only about 21 miles in diameter; by
comparison, Neptune is 30,599 miles in diameter.
This
latest discovery was made by Mark Showalter, a senior research scientist at the
SETI Institute, and his team, using observations from the Hubble Space
Telescope.
The
Voyager 2 spacecraft conducted a flyby of Neptune in 1989 and spotted six small
inner moons -- but not Hippocamp. This makes Hippocamp the seventh inner moon
found around Neptune, bringing the planet's total moons to 14.
Hippocamp
is in close orbit to Proteus, the largest and outermost of Neptune's inner
moons. And the researchers believe that Hippocamp is a fragment of Proteus.
Learn
more here.