Jupiter surpassed Saturn in number of satellites  

The battle continues

Jupiter is once again the king of natural satellites in our solar system. After losing the lead to Saturn in 2019, astronomers have spotted 12 more moons orbiting the Solar System’s largest planet, bringing the total to 92 and leaving Saturn behind with 83.

The orbits of the new satellites were published in the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center , which records all minor bodies discovered in the Solar System. It is worth mentioning that the new satellites were discovered during the scientists’ search for the mysterious hypothetical Planet Nine.

Jupiter just happened to be in the sky near the survey area where we were looking for extremely distant Solar System objects.

It may sound strange that we are just now discovering these objects, but they are quite small and dim, making them even more difficult to spot than the big and bright Jupiter. Astronomers in the search for Planet Nine used a more powerful telescope with greater resolution and a wider field of view than other observations in the past.

Thus, they located the small satellites at a fairly far distance from Jupiter, moving against the direction of Jupiter’s rotation. Three of the twelve are closest to the planet and have the same direction as Jupiter’s rotation.

Of course, more observations are needed to confirm that the objects will pass in front of Jupiter again, which could take years.

Jupiter’s counter-rotating moons – which are most of them – are thought to have come from the remnants of three larger bodies that were caught in Jupiter’s gravity and disintegrated after collisions. It is also very likely that there are other moons that we have not yet discovered, both around Jupiter and Saturn. So it seems that this battle of the two planets for most satellites is not over yet.