Astronomers have discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter, pushing it past Saturn as the planet in our solar system with the most moons — a whopping 92.
These newest moons range in size from 0.6 miles to two miles across, according to Sheppard.
“I hope we can image one of these outer moons close-up in the near future to better determine their origins,” Sheppard said in an email Friday.NASA’s Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter’s tantalizing, icy moon Europa in more than 20 years. In April, the European Space Agency is sending a spacecraft to Jupiter to study the planet and some of its biggest icy moons. And next year, NASA will launch the Europa Clipper toSheppard — who discovered a slew of moons around Saturn a few years ago and has taken part in— expects to keep adding to the lunar tally of both gas giants.
Jupiter and Saturn are loaded with small moons, believed to be fragments of once bigger moons that collided with one another or with comets or asteroids, Sheppard said. The same goes for Uranus and Neptune, but they’re so distant that it makes moon-spotting even harder.Jupiter’s newly discovered moons have yet to be named. Sheppard said only half of them are big enough — at least one mile across or so — to warrant a name.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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