Lalitha Vaidyits approval on September 27 almost after a month of the discovery of the two Uranian moons (s/2003 u1 and s/2003 u2) by the Nasa scientists. Uranus ranks third in the number of IAU certified moons behind Jupiter (38) and Saturn (30).


Excluding the outer moons that travel in elongated orbits and are probably captured asteroids, Uranus holds the record for the most satellites with 18 in its inner system, says Dr Bharat Adur of Nehru Centre here.


The Hubble Telescope observations also helped astronomers been spotted in voyager pictures.

All of them have nearly circular orbits and Saturn is second with 17, Adur says.

The astronomers hope to refine the orbits of the newly discovered moons with further observations, he says.
"Orbits will show how the moons interact with one another, perhaps showing how such a crowded system of satellites can be stabilised," he says.


Bureau Report