Jupiter Now Has The Biggest Family Of Planets With 12 Newly Discovered Moons

Source: The post is based on the article “Jupiter Now Has The Biggest Family Of Planets With 12 Newly Discovered Moons” published in Indian Express on 7th February 2023.

What is the News?

Jupiter isn’t just the largest and most massive planet in the solar system. It now also has the largest number of moons orbiting it after scientists discovered another 12 moons, bringing the total moons orbiting it up to 92.

Until now, Saturn held the crown for the planet with the most moons in the solar system.

About Moons in Jupiter

There are many interesting moons around Jupiter but the first four moons discovered beyond Earth are of the most scientific interest. These four are called Galilean Moons – lo, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede.

The newly-discovered moons are small and far away from Jupiter, taking more than 340 days to orbit the gas giant.

Many of these moons have a retrograde orbit, meaning that they orbit in the opposite direction of the inner moons. This hints at the fact that Jupiter probably captures these moons. 

Also, only five of these moons are larger than 8 kilometres. It is likely that the smaller moons were probably formed from larger objects fragmented by collisions.