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Jupiter was already the world-beater of thesolar system , and new discoveries give the massive satellite another way to sovereignty supreme : It now has the most moon .
Twelve new moons let on orbiting Jupiter have been confirm , dislodge the tally from 80 to 92 , and knock Saturn — which has 83 moons — down a rowlock .
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captures Jupiter along with Io, one of the planet’s at least 92 moons.
The newly discovered moons are pocket-size , ranging from 0.6 to 2 miles ( 1 to 3.2 klick ) widely , and most of them have wide orbits . Nine of the 12 moons take more than 550 day to orbit the gas giant , Sky and Telescope report . These far - out moon also orbit Jupiter in a retrograde motion , meaning they move in the opposite direction of Jupiter ’s rotation . Their distant and retrograde orbits belike think these objects used to be asteroids and eventually got capture up in Jupiter ’s sombreness , according to the researcher who detect them .
The Sun Myung Moon were discovered in 2021 and 2022 byScott Sheppard , an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington , D.C. He reported his finding to the International Astronomical Union ’s Minor Planet Center , which tracks all reports of little bodies in the solar system . Before the moons could be officially confirmed , their complete orbits had to be tracked , according to Sky and Telescope . Now , all 12 have officially been confirmed .
Jupiter ’s advantageously - screw instinctive satellites are its four Galilaean Moon , named after astronomer Galileo Galilei , who observe them in 1610 . They admit Io , with its lava lakes and enormous volcanic eruption ; Europa , with its arctic shell and inner pee ocean ; Ganymede , the bombastic lunar month in the solar system ( it ’s big than Mercury , according toNASA ) ; and Callisto , the most cratered lunation in the solar organization .
This year , theEuropean Space Agency’sJupiter Icy Moons Explorer(known as JUICE ) is specify to launch toward the gas titan to search these four moons , and in 2024 , NASA ’s Europa Clipper is slate to launch on a commission to get a closer sentiment of Europa .
