The largest family of moons exists now on the largest planet in the solar system. Twelve previously unreported moons of Jupiter have had their orbits published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) since December 20th. According to Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute for Science, who just reported observations of the Jovian system made between 2021 and 2022, more publications are anticipated. The new discoveries raise the number of Jovian moons from 80 to 92, a significant 15% increase.
The additional objects are definitely in orbit around Jupiter, according to the MPC's orbital calculations. The last "lost" Jovian moon, S/2003 J 10, was found thanks to additional information from Sheppard's observations, and more recent observations prolonged its orbital path by another 18 years.
This top-down diagram shows the orbits of moons around Jupiter: Purple denotes the Galilean moons, yellow for Themisto, blue for the Himalia group, cyan and green for Carpo and Valetudo, respectively, and red for far-out retrograde moons. (Note: The number of moons in this diagram is not up to date.)
Scott Sheppard
JUPITER VS SATURN
With the recent discoveries, Jupiter now has a much larger lunar family than Saturn, which has 83 known moons. Saturn may overtake Jupiter in the near future, despite Jupiter now having the more moons.
If we could count all moons measuring at least 3 kilometers across, “Saturn would have more moons than all the rest of the solar system,” says Brett Gladman (University of British Columbia, Canada), who helped identify the new Saturnian objects but was not involved in the Jovian observations.