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A montage of Jupiter and its four largest moons (distance and sizes not to scale) There are 95 moons of Jupiter with confirmed orbits as of 5 February 2024. [1] [note 1] This number does not include a number of meter-sized moonlets thought to be shed from the inner moons, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized outer irregular moons that were only briefly captured by telescopes. [4]
The sizes and masses of many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are fairly well known due to numerous observations and interactions of the Galileo and Cassini orbiters; however, many of the moons with a radius less than ~100 km, such as Jupiter's Himalia, have far less certain masses. [5]
Size of Jupiter compared to Earth and Earth's Moon. Jupiter is about ten times larger than Earth (11.209 R 🜨) and smaller than the Sun (0.102 76 R ☉). Jupiter's mass is 318 times that of Earth; [2] 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.
Jupiter has surpassed Saturn with the record for the planet with the most moons in our solar system. The gas giant has a total of 92 confirmed moons, according to new observations by astronomers.
Jupiter has 95 moons with known orbits; 72 of them have received permanent designations, and 57 have been named. Its eight regular moons are grouped into the planet-sized Galilean moons and the far smaller Amalthea group. They were named after lovers of Zeus, the Greek equivalent of Jupiter.
In science class, we always learned that all the planets in our solar system orbit around the sun. Scientists have figured out this is not necessarily true.
Europa Clipper will explore the ice-covered world.
Jupiter was known to astronomers of ancient times. [1] The Romans named it after their god Jupiter. [2] When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of −2.94, bright enough for its reflected light to cast shadows, [3] and making it on average the third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.