With the addition of these 12 moons, astronomers have found a record-breaking total of 92 moons around Jupiter.
Compared to the other planets in the Solar System, that is an abundance. The former leader, Saturn, now ranks second with 83 verified moons.
Scott Sheppard, a member of the team from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, claimed that the moons of Jupiter were recently added to a list held by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center.
Their orbits were verified by further studies after they were identified in 2021 and 2022 using telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.
According to Sheppard, the smallest moons are between 1 and 3 kilometers in diameter (0.6 and 2 miles).
The origins of these moons in the solar system are still a mystery, and he wrote in an email on Friday that he hoped to get a close-up view of one of the moons in the outer solar system soon.
The European Space Agency plans to launch a probe to Jupiter in April to investigate the gas giant and its largest, ice moons. Also, Jupiter has a moon called Europa, and next year NASA will send the Europa Clipper there to investigate the possibility of an ocean lying under the moon’s icy surface.
Sheppard, who a few years ago found a plethora of moons around Saturn and has been involved in the discovery of 70 moons so far surrounding Jupiter, anticipates that the lunar tally of both gas giants will continue to increase.
