Jupiter now has 92 moons — more than any other planet in our solar system | 24CA News
Astronomers have found 12 new moons round Jupiter, placing the entire rely at a record-breaking 92. That’s greater than another planet in our photo voltaic system.
Saturn, the one-time chief, is available in an in depth second with 83 confirmed moons.
The Jupiter moons had been added not too long ago to an inventory saved by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, mentioned Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution, who was a part of the workforce.
They had been found utilizing telescopes in Hawaii and Chile in 2021 and 2022, and their orbits had been confirmed with follow-up observations. These latest moons vary in measurement from 1 kilometre to three kilometres, based on Sheppard.
“I hope we can image one of these outer moons close-up in the near future to better determine their origins,” he mentioned in an electronic mail Friday.
In April, the European Space Agency is sending a spacecraft to Jupiter to review the planet and a few of its largest, icy moons. And subsequent 12 months, NASA will launch the Europa Clipper to discover Jupiter’s moon of the identical title, which might harbour an ocean beneath its frozen crust.
Sheppard — who found a slew of moons round Saturn a number of years in the past and has taken half in 70 moon discoveries up to now round Jupiter — expects to maintain including to the lunar tally of each gasoline giants.
Jupiter and Saturn are loaded with small moons, believed to be fragments of as soon as larger moons that collided with each other or with comets or asteroids, Sheppard mentioned.
The identical goes for Uranus and Neptune, however they’re so distant that it makes moon-spotting even tougher. Uranus has 27 confirmed moons, Neptune has 14, Mars has two, and Earth has one moon. Venus and Mercury come up empty.
Jupiter’s newly found moons have but to be named. Sheppard mentioned solely half of them are sufficiently big — not less than 1.5 kilometres or so — to warrant a reputation.
