The battle for the most known moons in the Solar System is raging on.
has once again surged ahead. Astronomers have counted 12 previously unknown moons in orbit around our Solar System's biggest planet, bringing the known total to 92, and leaving Saturn, with its measly count of 83, in the dust.of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, which keeps records of all the small bodies discovered in the Solar System.
This is not weird; most of Jupiter's moons are retrograde. This motion means they were probably passing rocks that were snared by Jupiter's gravity and remained in orbit. The moons were spotted in 2021 and 2022. Anything near Jupiter moving across the sky in the same direction and at the same speed is a potential moon, but confirming them takes time.
This can tell us about the history of Jupiter and its moons. For example, the retrograde moons are thought to be the remnants of three larger bodies that were captured in Jovian orbit and then broke apart after colliding with other objects. But one of the moons discovered a few years ago, Valetudo, has a prograde orbit that crosses into the orbits of the retrograde moons.
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