Jupiter now has 92 natural satellites orbiting the Gas Giant, thanks to the discovery of 12 new moons by astronomers. According to Sky and Telescope, Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, currently has the most moons.
Astronomer Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, who observed the planet between the years 2021 and 2022, has written about the results. The orbits of the new moons have been made public by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
With 83 confirmed natural satellites orbiting Saturn, it had the largest family of moons before this discovery.
NASA, the US space agency, says that there are a lot of interesting moons around Jupiter, but the first four moons found outside of Earth are most interesting for science. Lo, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede are the four that are referred to as the Galilean Moons.
Around Jupiter, a further dozen moons have now been discovered. These newly discovered moons are smaller than Jupiter's other giant moons and orbit the planet in over 340 days. According to the report, nine of them are among the 71 outermost Jovian moons and have a longer orbital period of 550 days.
Between the large Galilean moons and the retrograde moons, three of the new Jovian moons are among those that orbit in a prograde direction. Sheppard asserts that these are more difficult to locate than the distant retrograde moons. The reason is that they are closer to Jupiter, which has a lot of scattered light, according to the publication, which quoted the astronomer.
After Scott S. Sheppard discovered 20 new moons around the ringed planet in 2019, Saturn had overtaken Jupiter as the planet with the most moons. An online contest to name the 12 new moons around Jupiter that the astronomer had discovered a year earlier was held.
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