Jupiter and its four largest moons.
Click on image for full size
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.


You might also be interested in:

More Moons around Jupiter & Saturn

Astronomers have recently discovered nine new moons. The astronomers found eight new moons of Jupiter and one new moon of Saturn. We now know of 60 moons orbiting Jupiter and 31 orbiting Saturn. The new...more

More and more Moons of Jupiter

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...more

Mars Opposition in August 2003

On August 27, 2003, Earth and Mars will be closer together than they have been in thousands of years. Mars will pass within 55,758,006 kilometers (34,646,418 miles) from Earth. Astronomers have calculated...more

Mercury Transit on May 7, 2003

The planet Mercury appeared to cross in front of the Sun on May 7, 2003. Astronomers call the event a transit. A transit is like a solar eclipse. However, a transit occurs when a planet, instead of Earth's...more

Sunspots and space weather storms

Two very large groups of sunspots have appeared on the Sun. Each of the groups is about as big as the planet Jupiter, which is the largest planet in our Solar System! Sunspots are places on the Sun where...more

More than 100 planets orbit distant stars!

Astronomers have identified another exoplanet, that is, a planet outside our solar system. This makes a total of 102 exoplanets that have so far been found by astronomers! The astronomers that identified...more

Map of the Sky

Thanks to a couple of telescopes, everyone on the internet can browse through almost 2 million images. Stars throughout the sky were photographed by the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and are now available...more

The Equator is Growing!

Earth may look perfectly spherical from space, like a giant marble, but it actually isn't! Instead, our planet is wider around the equator because matter is forced out as Earth spins (just as you feel...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA