USA TODAY International Edition
Jupiter gets the moon medal
There’s a new moon king in our solar system: 12 new moons have been discovered around Jupiter, which makes it the planet with the most moons.
Jupiter is already the biggest planet in our solar system. The gas giant used to be known as the planet with the second- most moons with 80, trailing only Saturn with 83. Astronomers using telescopes in Hawaii and Chile in 2021 and 2022 spotted the moons. They then followed up to make sure the moons orbit the planet.
How many moons does each planet have?
The discovery gives Jupiter 92 total moons, the most of any planet in the solar system. Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science, who was part of the discovery team, believes there are moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn that haven’t been discovered yet. He said both planets have small moons believed to have been bigger moons that collided with space debris like asteroids. Below are the number of moons NASA says each planet, listed closest to farthest from the sun, now has:
What are Jupiter’s newly discovered moons like?
Sheppard told The Associated Press the moons range in size from .6 miles to 2 miles in diameter, but only half of them are big enough – at least 1 mile in diameter – to have a name.
The moons also take a much longer time than ours to orbit its planet. Sky and Telescope reported all of the newly discovered moons take more than 340 days to orbit Jupiter, and nine of them take at least 550 days. Our moon takes about 27 days to orbit Earth, NASA says.
Destination Jupiter this year and next
The discovery comes as space agencies prepare to observe the planet and its moons. The European Space Agency will launch its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, in April to observe the planet and its three large ocean- bearing moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. In October 2024, NASA plans to send its Europa Clipper orbiter to observe Europa, which is believed to be mostly water ice and have twice as much water as Earth – and could support life.