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Curated category

Moons with a prograde orbit

  • Polydeuces (moon)The Cassini Imaging Science Team identified Polydeuces in images taken by the Cassini space probe on the 21st of October 2004.
  • Calypso (moon)Dan Pascu, P. Kenneth Seidelmann, William A. Baum, and Douglas G. Currie spotted Calypso in 1980 through ground-based observations.
  • Adrastea (moon)A faint dot appeared in the center of a photograph taken on the 8th of July 1979. David C. Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson spotted this tiny speck while…
  • Dione (moon)Giovanni Domenico Cassini set up a large aerial telescope on the grounds of the Paris Observatory in 1684. He found Dione that year while searching for moons…
  • Telesto (moon)Ground-based observations in 1980 revealed a faint point of light near Saturn. Smith, Reitsema, Larson and Fountain identified this object as a new moon…
  • Ariel (moon)William Lassell spotted Ariel on the 24th of October 1851. He was observing Uranus from his private observatory in England when he found this faint satellite.
  • Tethys (moon)Giovanni Domenico Cassini stood before a large aerial telescope on the grounds of the Paris Observatory in 1684. He peered into the darkness and found four…
  • Ganymede (moon)On the 7th of January 1610, Galileo Galilei pointed a telescope toward Jupiter and saw three faint points of light near the planet.
  • Io (moon)On the 8th of January 1610, Galileo Galilei observed a single point of light that was actually two moons, Io and Europa, moving together in his telescope.
  • Titan (moon)On the 25th of March 1655, Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens spotted a faint point of light near Saturn. He used one of two telescopes he had built with…
  • Galilean moonsOn the 7th of January 1610, Galileo Galilei wrote a letter containing the first mention of Jupiter's moons. He saw only three of them at that time and…
  • Helene (moon)Pierre Laques and Jean Lecacheux spotted the moon from Pic du Midi Observatory in 1980. Ground-based observations revealed a faint object orbiting Saturn…
  • Europa (moon)On the 8th of January 1610, Galileo Galilei observed a faint point of light near Jupiter that would become known as Europa.
  • Miranda (moon)Gerard Kuiper spotted a faint point of light on the 16th of February 1948 using the Otto Struve Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
  • MimasWilliam Herschel recorded a new celestial body on the 17th of September 1789 using his massive 40-foot telescope. The instrument featured a metal mirror with…
  • Titania (moon)William Herschel spotted Titania on the 11th of January 1787. He recorded this discovery in his journal while observing Uranus from his private observatory…
  • UmbrielOn the 24th of October 1851, William Lassell spotted a faint point of light moving against the dark backdrop of space. He was standing at his observatory in…
  • Proteus (moon)The Voyager 2 space probe captured the first images of Proteus in June 1989, just two months before its historic flyby of Neptune. Stephen P.
  • Callisto (moon)In 1610, Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope toward Jupiter and saw four points of light that did not move like stars.
  • Hyperion (moon)In September 1848, two separate teams of astronomers spotted a strange new moon orbiting Saturn. William Cranch Bond and his son George Phillips Bond worked…
  • Styx (moon)On the 11th of July 2012, astronomers announced the existence of a tiny moon orbiting Pluto. Mark R. Showalter led the team that found this object using…
  • Oberon (moon)William Herschel spotted Oberon on the 11th of January 1787. He found it while observing Uranus from his private observatory in Slough, England.
  • Rhea (moon)Giovanni Domenico Cassini pointed a telescope toward Saturn on the 23rd of December 1672. He used an instrument crafted by Giuseppe Campani to spot a faint…
  • Metis (moon)On the 4th of March 1979, a tiny dot appeared in images sent back by the Voyager 1 probe. Stephen P. Synnott spotted this faint speck against the swirling…
  • Nix (moon)On the 15th of May 2005, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope captured images that would change our understanding of Pluto.
  • Phobos (moon)On the 18th of August 1877, American astronomer Asaph Hall spotted a faint point of light through the 26-inch Great Equatorial telescope at the United States…
  • EnceladusOn the 28th of August 1789, William Herschel spotted a faint dot of light while using his new forty-foot telescope at Observatory House in Slough.
  • Deimos (moon)Asaph Hall III stood at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. on the 12th of August 1877. He spotted Deimos at about 07:48 UTC that morning.
  • Iapetus (moon)Giovanni Domenico Cassini spotted Iapetus in October 1671. This Italian-born French astronomer found the moon on the western side of Saturn.
  • Hydra (moon)On the 15th of May 2005, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope spotted faint points of light near Pluto. These images captured two new moons that had…
  • Thebe (moon)Stephen P. Synnott found Thebe in images from the Voyager 1 space probe taken on the 5th of March 1979. This discovery happened while the spacecraft was…
  • Charon (moon)On the 22nd of June 1978, astronomer James Christy examined photographic plates at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station.
  • MoonFour point five one billion years ago, a Mars-sized body named Theia collided with the proto-Earth. This oblique impact blasted material into orbit about our…
  • Amalthea (moon)Edward Emerson Barnard stood at the eyepiece of a 36 inch refractor telescope on the 9th of September 1892. He was working at Lick Observatory when he…