By Marcia Dunn
Associated Press, February
3, 2023 -- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
Astronomers have discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter, putting the total
count at a record-breaking 92. That’s
more than any other planet in our solar system.
Saturn, the one-time
leader, comes in a close second with 83
confirmed moons.
The Jupiter moons were
added recently to a list kept by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor
Planet Center, said Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution, who was part of
the team.
They were discovered
using telescopes in Hawaii and Chile in 2021 and 2022, and their orbits were
confirmed with follow-up observations.
These newest moons
range in size from 0.6 miles to 2 miles (1 kilometer to 3 kilometers),
according to Sheppard.
“I hope we can image
one of these outer moons close-up in the near future to better determine their
origins,” he said in an email Friday.
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 to
explore Jupiter’s moon of the same name, which could harbor an ocean beneath
its frozen crust.
Sheppard — who
discovered a slew of moons around Saturn a few years ago and has taken part in
70 moon discoveries so far around Jupiter — 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.
For the record, Uranus
has 27 confirmed moons, Neptune 14, Mars two and Earth one. Venus and Mercury
come up empty.
Jupiter’s newly
discovered moons have yet to be named. Sheppard said only half of them are big
enough — at least 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) or so — to warrant a name.
___
The Associated Press
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https://apnews.com/article/science-hawaii-chile-planets-c176ea4bbee4fda4e996884802e47141
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