Jupiter and its four largest moons.
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Image courtesy NASA
More and more Moons of Jupiter
News story originally written on March 20, 2003
Astronomers have discovered twelve new moons of Jupiter
so far in 2003. Jupiter now has a total of 52 moons that we know of. Jupiter,
the largest planet in our Solar System, has more moons than any other planet.
Astronomers think there may be as many as 100 small moons orbiting Jupiter!
So we may discover many more moons around Jupiter in the future.
For now, the moons all have temporary names. They are called S/2003 J1 through
S/2003 J12. Later the moons will be given "real" names.
All of the new moons are very small. They are between one and four kilometers
in diameter. The moons were discovered using telescopes on the top of a volcano
called Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
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