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Astronomers announced the discovery of 10 other moons of Jupiter, bringing to 79 the number known to revolve around the giant gas planet.
All newly identified moons are relatively small.
While Jupiter, the fifth planet in the Sun, has large moons such as Ganymede – the largest of the solar system with a diameter of 5.268 km – the news has a size of about 1 km to 4 km. This is tiny compared to Jupiter's 142,984 km diameter
A research team led by astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington identified 12 small Jovian moons, including the 10 described on Tuesday.
"Jupiter is" These objects started to revolve around Jupiter, instead of falling into it, so we think that they are intermediate between rock asteroids and icy comets. "
The most interesting of new moons is Valetudo, named after the great-granddaughter of the ancient Roman god Jupiter, goddess of health and hygiene.
Valetudo revolves around Jupiter in the same direction than the planet spins, but a group of other small moons share the same orbital trajectory when traveling in the opposite direction.
"Valetudo goes down the road in the wrong direction, so it is very likely that it will collide with these other objects. The known moons of Jupiter are the most numerous of all the planets of the solar system, followed by the 62 identified around the gaseous planet with giant rings Saturn.
Sheppard says Jupiter and Saturn can actually have a similar number of moons, with some of the smaller ones of Saturn not yet detected.
A moon is defined as any object, regardless of its size, that orbits a planet, not the sun. The two deepest planets in the solar system, Mercury and Venus, do not have one. Of the 79 moons of Jupiter, 26 remain nameless, including nine of the 10 new ones.
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