As a result of the new observations, 12 new small moons orbiting Jupiter were discovered. With these 12 new moons, the number of satellites of the largest planet in the Solar System has increased to 92.
In addition, Jupiter takes the crown from Saturn in terms of the number of satellites. Saturn has 83 known moons.
Astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington DC reports that observations of the system over the past two years have revealed a dozen new moons. All newly found satellites are probably too small to be named and take more than 340 days to orbit each other.
This is what Jupiter’s many moons orbit and their orbits look like from a bird’s eye view.It is also possible that the total number of Jupiter’s moons is even greater. The glow from the massive planet makes small objects particularly difficult to spot, making it possible for a number of smaller, unseen moons to orbit the giant planet as well, waiting to be discovered.
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