New Moons of Uranus and Neptune from Ultradeep Pencil-beam Surveys

Abstract

We have conducted extremely ultradeep pencil-beam observations for new satellites around both Uranus and Neptune. Tens of images on several different nights in 2021, 2022, and 2023 were obtained, shifted, and added together to reach as faint as 26.9 and 27.2 mag in the r band around Uranus and Neptune, respectively. One new moon of Uranus, S/2023 U1, and two new moons of Neptune, S/2021 N1 and S/2002 N5, were found. S/2023 U1 was 26.6 mag, is about 7 km in diameter, and has a distant, eccentric, and inclined retrograde orbit similar to Caliban and Stephano, implying these satellites are fragments from a once larger parent satellite. S/2021 N1 was 26.9 mag, about 14 km in size, and has a retrograde orbit similar to Neso and Psamathe, indicating they are a dynamical family. We find S/2021 N1 is in Kozai–Lidov orbital resonance. S/2002 N5 was 25.9 mag, is about 23 km in size, and it makes a family of distant prograde satellites with Sao and Laomedeia. This survey mostly completes the outer satellites of Uranus to about 8 km and Neptune to about 14 km in diameter. The size distributions of satellite dynamical families around the giant planets shows a strong steepening in the power-law size distribution smaller than 5 km in diameter. The satellites of a family become much more common at diameters smaller than 5 km and their size distribution is consistent with a collisional breakup of a once larger parent satellite.

Keywords

• Irregular satellites
• Neptunian satellites
• Uranian satellites
• Natural satellites (Solar system)