Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and also it has the largest moon in our solar system. [29] The names Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto became popular in the mid-20th century,[30] whereas the rest of the moons remained unnamed and were usually numbered in Roman numerals V (5) to XII (12). The Galilean satellites are nearly spherical in shape due to their planetary mass, and so would be considered at least dwarf planets if they were in direct orbit around the Sun. So there are 53 confirmed Jupiter moons with its official names. Before discovering Galilean Moons, scientists did not know that any object orbits a planet other than the earth’s moon. Astronomers say they've discovered another 12 moons orbiting Jupiter. discovered the inner satellite ‘Amalthea’. Despite the fact that Jupiter has a number of approximately 63 named satellites, only four of them are generally referred to as the planet's moons. Scientists consider these four ancient moons around Jupiter to be some of the most fascinating destinations in our entire solar system, but why? Our Jupiter's Moons tool displays Universal Time (UT, the same as Greenwich Mean Time). CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, Timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their moons, "A dozen new moons of Jupiter discovered, including one "oddball, "Cannibalistic Jupiter ate its early moons", "Irregular Satellites of the Planets: Products of Capture in the Early Solar System", "The Discovery of Jupiter's Satellite Made by Gan De 2000 years Before Galileo", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, "Discovery of the Ninth Satellite of Jupiter", "How Many Moons Does Jupiter Have? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Saturn now has the largest number of known moons of any planet in the Solar System. Galilean Moons: Increasing distance from Jupiter. [3], In September 2020, researchers from the University of British Columbia identified 45 candidate moons from an analysis of archival images taken in 2010 by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The remainder of Jupiter's moons are irregular satellites whose prograde and retrograde orbits are much farther from Jupiter and have high inclinations and eccentricities. Jupiter’s 4 largest moons; Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa are known as the Galilean Moons, named after their discoverer Galileo Galilei. Though there are 79 known moons of Jupiter, but currently some of Jupiter’s moons are lost (currently 7 satellites are lost). On June 30, 2004, the US spacecraft Cassini dropped a probe into Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. There are a whopping 79 moons orbiting Jupiter. This means Jupiter has at least 79 moons, the highest number of any planet in our solar system. The most massive of the moons are the four Galilean moons, which were independently discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius. Four, Jupiter’s Galilean Moons were the first discovered moons after the earth’s moons and were the first known objects to orbit a planet after the earth’s moon. So far, astronomers have discovered 82 moons around Saturn, while only 79 satellites have been spotted around Jupiter. Whereas the Voyager spacecraft discovered the other three inner moons of Jupiter. They will present their findings on September 25th at the virtual Europlanet Science Congress 2020 . These have prograde and nearly circular orbits of low inclination and are split into two groups: The irregular satellites are substantially smaller objects with more distant and eccentric orbits. [35] The practice was to name newly discovered moons of Jupiter after lovers and favorites of the god Jupiter (Zeus) and, since 2004, also after their descendants. Some of Jupiter’s moon can collide in the future after millions of years, because of their prograde and retrograde orbits. The sizes of the moons vary widely with Galileans moons being the biggest. Its appearance, as photographed from space, tells us another story, however (Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\)). Mass: 0.… Adrastea is the smallest moonin this group. A number of other moons have only been observed for a year or two, but have decent enough orbits to be easily measurable even in 2020.[1]. [21], No additional moons were discovered for two decades, but between October 1999 and February 2003, researchers found another 34 moons using sensitive ground-based detectors. Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have 1, 2, 67, 62, 27, and 14 moons, respectively. In 2016, the Juno spacecraft imaged the Galilean moons from above their orbital plane as it approached Jupiter orbit insertion, creating a time-lapse movie of their motion.[54]. Classification of Moons. 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