Astronomers have discovered 15 new moons of Jupiter and Saturn — Space
Astronomers have announced the discovery of 15 new moons in the Solar System—four of them orbit Jupiter, and another eleven orbit Saturn.
This was reported by Space.
Following the discovery, the total number of moons for these planets has risen to 101 for Jupiter and 285 for Saturn. In total, there are now 442 known moons of planets and dwarf planets in the Solar System.
The new objects are small—averaging about 3 kilometers in diameter. They orbit in distant orbits and are very faint, so powerful telescopes and prolonged observations were required to detect them.
Jupiter’s moons were discovered by astronomers Scott Sheppard and David Tholen using telescopes in Chile and Hawaii. The eleven moons of Saturn were discovered by a team led by Edward Ashton using the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope.
Although Saturn currently has the largest number of moons, this may change with new space missions. In particular, the Europa Clipper and JUICE spacecraft, which are heading to Jupiter, may help discover new objects upon their arrival in the early 2030s.
According to updated data, Earth has one moon, Mars has two, Jupiter has 101, Saturn has 285, Uranus has 28, and Neptune has 16. Venus and Mercury have no moons, and among the dwarf planets, Pluto has five, Haumea has two, Eris and Makemake have one each, while Ceres has none.
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