The new moon, which was officially named after a sea creature from classical mythology, has a diameter of 34 kilometers and is in orbit of Neptune. In fact, this is not a brand new discovery (first focused in 2013), but only now, after the revision of the measured data, it was officially classified as a new moon.

A new discovery

In the summer of 2013, astronomer Mark Showalter studied images of the Neptune region taken by the Hubble Telescope. M. Showalter analyzed small arcs in a thin ring in the gas giant's system, becoming one of the first astronomers to oversee outside this segment. He discovered such a small point, more than 100 kilometers from the planet, and soon realized that the miniature speck, located between the orbits of the inner moons Larissa and Proteus, that appeared in more than 000 Hubble telescope photographs between 150 and 2004 was something was new. Last summer, the first announcement of the discovery of the new moon was published, however, M. Showhow waited for the latest dreams from 2009 to confirm its existence.

The new moon was called Hippocamp - a Greek mythology monster that has a horse's head and a fish tail. "It is officially named after a Greek mythology monster," says M.Showalter on Space.com, "but at the same time it is more of a seahorse for me," says M. showhow.

This first Hippocamp study was first published in "Nature" (20.2.2018). This was made possible by a smarter technique with which M.Showalter and his team could discover a new moon. The research was based on eight Hubble Telescope 5 minute sequences focused on the Neptune system. Combining photos, transforms, and rearranging individual pixels from photos, it was identified despite the movement of the new moon. Essentially, one of the eight individual sequences produced one 40 - one minute photo.

Hippocamp

So far, we know very little about the new moon, but even that little helps us to better understand Neptune and its system. The orbit of the Hippocampus is very close to the orbit of another, much larger Neptune moon, Protea. This fact, together with the small size of Hippocampus, is one of the indications for astronomers that it is probably a fragment of another moon, in this case a fragment of Protea. Astronomers believe that Proteus was hit billions of years ago by another asteroid that created a huge crater on its surface. Scientists believe that the Hippocamp is also the result of this collision.

But this theory is still waiting for confirmation. But whether Proteus and Hippocamp have, or do not have the same origins, for the time being is not the composition of the new moon, astronomers believe it is very likely. Unfortunately, the newly discovered moon is so small and dark that the Neptune system is difficult to survey.