Timeline of discovery of solar system planets and their natural satellites
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history.
Historically the naming of natural satellites did not always match the times of their discovery.
In the following tables, planetary satellites are indicated in bold type (e.g. Moon) while planets, major or minor, which directly circle the Sun are in italic type (e.g. Earth). The tables are sorted by publication/announcement date. Dates are annotated with the following symbols:
- i: for date of first imaging (photography, etc.);
- o: for date of first human visual observation, either through telescope or on photographic plate (the true "discovery" moment);
- p: for date of announcement or publication.
*Note: Marked moons had complicated discoveries. Several moons took several years to be confirmed, and in several cases were actually lost and rediscovered. Others were found in Voyager photographs years after they were taken.
Contents |
[edit] Color code
The planets and their natural satellites are marked in the following colors:
Planets | Dwarf planets | |
Mercury | Jupiter and satellites | Ceres |
Venus | Saturn and satellites | Pluto and satellites |
Earth and satellite | Uranus and satellites | Eris and satellite |
Mars and satellites | Neptune and satellites |
[edit] Prehistory
Prehistory | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
Unknown | Sun | Star | In the Ptolemaic system, the Earth was believed to be at the center of the cosmos. Seven planets were placed in orbit around it in an order of increasing distance from the Earth, first established by the Greek Stoics: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. This list included two objects, the Sun and the Moon, which are no longer considered to be planets; it also excluded the Earth. | ||
Unknown | Mercury | 1st Planet | In Nicolaus Copernicus' heliocentric system (De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, 1543) the Earth came to be considered a planet revolving with the other planets around the Sun, in the following order of distance from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The Sun, now situated near the center of revolution, was no longer considered a planet. | ||
Venus | 2nd Planet | ||||
Earth | 3rd Planet | ||||
Mars | 4th Planet | ||||
Jupiter | 5th Planet | ||||
Saturn | 6th Planet | ||||
Unknown | Moon | Earth I | In the Copernican system, the Moon was considered to be no longer a planet but a natural satellite of the Earth, and was the only body in that system whose revolution was not centered on the Sun. |
[edit] 17th century
17th century | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
1610s | |||||
o: January 7, 1610 p: March 13, 1610 |
Callisto | Jupiter IV | Galileo, Sidereus Nuncius, [1]. The Galilean moons. Note: One of the moons may have been recorded by the Chinese astronomer Gan De in 364 BC. The Galilean satellites were the first celestial objects that were confirmed to orbit an object other than the Earth. | ||
Io | Jupiter I | ||||
Europa | Jupiter II | ||||
o: January 11, 1610 p: March 13, 1610 |
Ganymede | Jupiter III | |||
1650s | |||||
o: March 25, 1655 p: March 5, 1656 |
Titan | Saturn VI | Huygens, [2]. Huygens first "published" his discovery as an anagram, sent out on June 13, 1655; later published in pamphlet form as De Saturni luna Observatio Nova and in full in Systema Saturnium (July 1659). | ||
1670s | |||||
o: October 25, 1671 p: 1673 |
Iapetus | Saturn VIII | Cassini, [3]. Cassini published these two discoveries in Découverte de deux nouvelles planètes autour de Saturne (Sébastien Mabre-Cramoisy, Paris, 1673), translated as A Discovery of two New Planets about Saturn, made in the Royal Parisian Observatory by Signor Cassini, Fellow of both the Royal Societys, of England and France; English't out of French., Philosophical Transactions 8 (1673), pp. 5178-5185. | ||
o: December 23, 1672 p: 1673 |
Rhea | Saturn V | |||
1680s | |||||
o: March 21, 1684 p: April 22, 1686 |
Tethys | Saturn III | Cassini. Cassini published these two discoveries on April 22, 1686, according to An Extract of the Journal Des Scavans. of April 22 st. N. 1686. Giving an account of two new Satellites of Saturn, discovered lately by Mr. Cassini at the Royal Observatory at Paris., Philosophical Transactions 16 (1686-1692) pp. 79-85. Together with his previous two discoveries, Cassini named these satellites Sidera Lodoicea. In his work Kosmotheôros (published posthumously in 1698), Christiaan Huygens relates "Jupiter you see has his four, and Saturn his five Moons about him, all plac’d in their Orbits." |
||
Dione | Saturn IV | ||||
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
[edit] 18th century
18th century | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
1780s | |||||
o: March 13, 1781 p: April 26, 1781 |
Uranus | 7th Planet | Herschel [4]. Herschel first reported the discovery of Uranus on April 26, 1781, initially believing it a comet: Account of a Comet. By Mr. Herschel, F. R. S.; communicated by Dr. Watson, Jun. of Bath, F. R. S., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 71, pp. 492-501. | ||
o: January 11, 1787 p: February 15, 1787 |
Titania | Uranus III | Herschel, An Account of the Discovery of Two Satellites revolving round the Georgian Planet., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 77, pp. 125-129, 1787 | ||
Oberon | Uranus IV | ||||
o: August 28, 1789 [5] p: November 12, 1789 |
Enceladus | Saturn II | Herschel, Account of the Discovery of a Sixth and Seventh Satellite of the Planet Saturn; with Remarks on the Construction of its Ring, its Atmosphere, its Rotation on an Axis, and its spheroidical Figure, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 80, pp. 1-20, 1790 (read November 12, 1789). | ||
o: September 17, 1789 p: November 12, 1789 |
Mimas | Saturn I | |||
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
[edit] 19th century
19th century | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
1800s | |||||
o: January 1, 1801 p: 1801 |
Ceres | 8th Planet (1801) Asteroid (1851) Dwarf planet (2006) |
Giuseppe Piazzi. He first announced his discovery on January 24, 1801, in letters to fellow astronomers. The first formal publication was the September 1801 issue of the Monatliche Correspondenz. | ||
1840s | |||||
o: September 23, 1846 p: November 13, 1846 |
Neptune | 13th Planet (1846) 8th Planet (1851) |
Galle and Le Verrier [6] [7] | ||
o: October 10, 1846 p: November 13, 1846 |
Triton | Neptune I | Lassell [8] | ||
o: September 16, 1848 p: October, 1848 |
Hyperion | Saturn VII | Bond, Bond, Lassell [9] [10] | ||
1850s | |||||
o: October 24, 1851 | Ariel | Uranus I | Lassell [11] | ||
Umbriel | Uranus II | ||||
1870s | |||||
o: August 12, 1877 | Deimos | Mars II | Hall [12] [13] [14] [15] | ||
o: August 18, 1877 | Phobos | Mars I | |||
1890s | |||||
o: September 9, 1892 p: October 4, 1892 |
Amalthea | Jupiter V | Barnard [16] | ||
i: August 16, 1898 o: March 17, 1899 |
Phoebe | Saturn IX | Pickering [17] [18] | ||
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
[edit] 20th century
20th century | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
1900s | |||||
i: December 3, 1904 p: January 6, 1905 |
Himalia (formerly known as Hestia) | Jupiter VI | Perrine [19] [20] [21] [22] | ||
i: January 2, 1905 p: February 27, 1905 |
Elara (formerly known as Hera) | Jupiter VII | Perrine [23] [24] [25] | ||
i: January 27, 1908 o: February 28, 1908 p: March 1-6 1908 |
Pasiphaë (formerly known as Poseidon) | Jupiter VIII | Melotte [26] [27] | ||
1910s | |||||
i: July 21, 1914 | Sinope (formerly known as Hades) | Jupiter IX | Nicholson [28] | ||
1930s | |||||
i: January 23, 1930 o: February 18, 1930 p: March 13, 1930 |
Pluto | 9th Planet (1930) Dwarf planet (2006) |
Tombaugh [29] | ||
i: July 6, 1938 | Lysithea (formerly known as Demeter) | Jupiter X | Nicholson [30] | ||
i: July 30, 1938 | Carme (formerly known as Pan) | Jupiter XI | Nicholson [31] | ||
1940s | |||||
i: February 16, 1948 | Miranda | Uranus V | Kuiper [32] | ||
i: May 1, 1949 | Nereid | Neptune II | Kuiper [33] [34] | ||
1950s | |||||
i: September 28, 1951 | Ananke (formerly known as Adrastea) | Jupiter XII | Nicholson [35] | ||
1960s | |||||
i: December 15, 1966 | Janus* | S/1966 S 2 | Saturn X | Dollfus [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] (Dollfus may have seen either Janus or Epimetheus) |
|
i: December 18, 1966 | Epimetheus* | Saturn XI | Walker [42] | ||
1970s | |||||
i: September 11, 1974 p: September 20, 1974 |
Leda | Jupiter XIII | Kowal [43] [44] [45] [46] | ||
i: September 30, 1975 p: October 3, 1975 |
Themisto* | S/1975 J 1 | Jupiter XVIII | Kowal [47] [48] [49] (Discovered and then lost) |
|
i: April 13, 1978 o: June 22, 1978 |
Charon | S/1978 P 1 | Pluto I | Christy [50] [51] | |
i: July 8, 1979 p: November 23, 1979 |
Adrastea | S/1979 J 1 | Jupiter XV | Jewitt, Danielson / Voyager 2 [52] [53] [54] [55] | |
1980s | |||||
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
i: February 19, 1980 | Janus* | S/1980 S 1 | Saturn X | [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] (Confirmed by Voyager 1) |
|
i: February 26, 1980 | Epimetheus* | S/1980 S 3 | Saturn XI | [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] (Confirmed by Voyager 1) |
|
i: March 1, 1980 | Helene | S/1980 S 6 | Saturn XII | Laques, Lecacheux [68] [69] [70] [71] | |
i: March 13, 1980 | Calypso | S/1980 S 25 | Saturn XIV | Pascu, Seidelmann, Baum, Currie [72] [73] | |
i: April 8, 1980 | Telesto | S/1980 S 13 | Saturn XIII | Smith, Reitsema, Larson, Fountain, Voyager 1 [74] [75] | |
i: March 5, 1979 p: April 28, 1980 |
Thebe | S/1979 J 2 | Jupiter XIV | Synnott, Voyager 1 [76] [77] | |
i:March 4, 1979 p: August 26, 1980 |
Metis | S/1979 J 3 | Jupiter XVI | Synnott, Voyager 1 [78] | |
o: October, 1980 | Atlas | S/1980 S 28 | Saturn XV | Terrile, Voyager 1 [79] | |
o: October, 1980 p: October 31, 1980 |
Prometheus | S/1980 S 27 | Saturn XVI | Collins, Voyager 1 [80] | |
Pandora | S/1980 S 26 | Saturn XVII | Collins, Voyager 1 [81] | ||
i: May 24, 1981 p: 29 May 1981 |
Larissa* | S/1981 N 1 = S/1989 N 2 |
Neptune VII | Reitsema, Hubbard, Lebofsky, Tholen, Voyager 2 [82] [83] | |
i: December 30, 1985 | Puck | S/1985 U 1 | Uranus XV | Synnott, Voyager 2 [84] | |
i: January 3, 1986 | Juliet | S/1986 U 2 | Uranus XI | Synnott, Voyager 2 [85] [86] | |
Portia | S/1986 U 1 | Uranus XII | Synnott, Voyager 2 [87] [88] | ||
i: January 9, 1986 | Cressida | S/1986 U 3 | Uranus IX | Synnott, Voyager 2 [89] [90] | |
i: January 13, 1986 | Desdemona | S/1986 U 6 | Uranus X | Synnott, Voyager 2 [91] [92] | |
Rosalind | S/1986 U 4 | Uranus XIII | Synnott, Voyager 2 [93] [94] | ||
Belinda | S/1986 U 5 | Uranus XIV | Synnott, Voyager 2 [95] [96] | ||
i: January 20, 1986 | Cordelia | S/1986 U 7 | Uranus VI | Terrile, Voyager 2 [97] | |
Ophelia | S/1986 U 8 | Uranus VII | Terrile, Voyager 2 [98] | ||
i: January 23, 1986 | Bianca | S/1986 U 9 | Uranus VIII | Smith, Voyager 2 [99] | |
i: June 16, 1989 p: July 7, 1989 |
Proteus | S/1989 N 1 | Neptune VIII | Synnott, Voyager 2 [100] | |
i: July 28, 1989 p: August 2, 1989 |
Despina | S/1989 N 3 | Neptune V | Synnott, Voyager 2 [101] | |
Galatea | S/1989 N 4 | Neptune VI | Synnott, Voyager 2 [102] | ||
i: September 18, 1989 p: September 29, 1989 |
Thalassa | S/1989 N 5 | Neptune IV | Terrile, Voyager 2 [103] | |
Naiad | S/1989 N 6 | Neptune III | Terrile, Voyager 2 [104] | ||
1990s | |||||
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
i: August 22, 1981 p: July 16, 1990 |
Pan* | S/1981 S 13 | Saturn XVIII | Showalter, Voyager 2 [105] | |
i: August 23, 1981 p: April 14, 1995 |
Pallene* (see below) | S/1981 S 14 | Saturn | Gordon, Murray and Beurle [106] | |
i: September 6, 1997 p: October 31, 1997 |
Caliban | S/1997 U 1 | Uranus XVI | Gladman, Nicholson, Burns, Kavelaars [108] | |
Sycorax | S/1997 U 2 | Uranus XVII | Gladman, Nicholson, Burns, Kavelaars [109] | ||
i: January 18, 1986 p: May 18, 1999 |
Perdita* | S/1986 U 10 | Uranus XXV | Karkoschka, Voyager 2 [110] | |
i: July 18, 1999 | Setebos | S/1999 U 1 | Uranus XIX | Kavelaars, Gladman, Holman, Petit, Scholl [111] | |
Stephano | S/1999 U 2 | Uranus XX | Gladman, Holman, Kavelaars, Petit, Scholl [112] | ||
Prospero | S/1999 U 3 | Uranus XVIII | Holman, Kavelaars, Gladman, Petit, Scholl [113] | ||
2000s | |||||
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
i: October 6, 1999 p: July 20, 2000 / |
Callirrhoe | S/1999 J 1 | Jupiter XVII | Scotti, Spahr, McMillan, Larsen, Montani, Gleason, Gehrels [114] [115] | |
i: August 7, 2000 | Ymir | S/2000 S 1 | Saturn XIX | Gladman [116] [117] | |
Paaliaq | S/2000 S 2 | Saturn XX | Gladman [118] [119] | ||
Kiviuq | S/2000 S 5 | Saturn XXIV | Gladman [120] [121] | ||
i: September 23, 2000 | Siarnaq | S/2000 S 3 | Saturn XXIX | Gladman, Kavelaars [122] [123] | |
Tarvos | S/2000 S 4 | Saturn XXI | Kavelaars, Gladman [124] [125] | ||
Ijiraq | S/2000 S 6 | Saturn XXII | Kavelaars, Gladman [126] [127] | ||
Thrymr | S/2000 S 7 | Saturn XXX | Gladman, Kavelaars [128] [129] | ||
Skathi | S/2000 S 8 | Saturn XXVII | Kavelaars, Gladman [130] [131] | ||
Mundilfari | S/2000 S 9 | Saturn XXV | Gladman, Kavelaars [132] [133] | ||
Erriapo | S/2000 S 10 | Saturn XXVIII | Kavelaars, Gladman [134] [135] | ||
Suttungr | S/2000 S 12 | Saturn XXIII | Gladman, Kavelaars [136] [137] | ||
i: November 9, 2000 p: December 19, 2000 |
Albiorix | S/2000 S 11 | Saturn XXVI | Holman, Spahr [138] [139] | |
i: November 21, 2000 p: November 25, 2000 |
Themisto* | S/2000 J 1 | Jupiter XVIII | Sheppard, Jewitt, Fernández, Magnier (Rediscovered) [140] [141] | |
Date | Name | Designation | Image | Planet/Number Designation | References/Notes |
[edit] 21st century
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- City of Hudson's Natural Satellite Page
- Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
- Scott Sheppard's Giant Planet Satellite Page
- JPL Natural Satellite Discovery Data
- James L. Hilton, When Did the asteroids Become Minor Planets?
Natural satellites of the Solar System | ||
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Planetary satellites | Terrestrial · Martian · Jovian · Saturnian · Uranian · Neptunian | |
Other satellite systems | Plutonian · Eridian · Asteroid satellites | |
Largest satellites | Ganymede · Titan · Callisto · Io · Moon · Europa · Triton Titania · Rhea · Oberon · Iapetus · Charon · Umbriel · Ariel · Dione · Tethys · Enceladus · Miranda · Proteus · Mimas |
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