Scientists Discover 12 New Moons Orbiting Jupiter

Astonomers discovered 12 new moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, bringing the total number of Jovian moons to 79, the Carnegie Institution for Science said on July 16.</a>.

The team, which had previously discovered a planetoid with the most distant orbit in the solar system, found two new moons that travel close to the planet in the same direction; nine other moons moving in retrograde, farther from Jupiter, and one moon they describe as an “oddball,” with a distant, inclined orbit.

Studying the orbits of moons can teach scientists about the solar system’s early years, the Carnegie Institution for Science said. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science via Storyful