With the advent of 12 new moons, Jupiter currently has 92 natural satellites that are known to exist. For the time being, at least, the gas giant retains the record for having the most recognized moons of any celestial body. With 83 known moons, Saturn is now second on the list; previous to this finding, it had held the top spot since 2019. Saturn, however, would have more moons than the rest of the solar system if researchers were able to find all moons that were at least three kilometers wide, according to Brett Gladman, University of British Columbia astronomer who was not associated in the new advances, in an interview with Sky & Telescope's Jeff Hecht.

Jupiter is often referred to as the "king of planets" and is more massive than all the other planets put together. Although the presence of Jupiter has been known for at least a few thousand years, Galileo Galilei is credited with making the first theory of the 5th planet nearest to the sun in 1610. At this period, he also found four of Jupiter's moons.

Further observations over the next 400 or so years brought the total to 80 known moons. Then, in 2021 and 2022, researchers discovered these 12 more possibilities using telescopes in Chile and Hawaii.

While our primary survey is seeking for planets outside the solar system beyond Pluto, we have been accidently scanning for new moons orbiting Jupiter. A member of the team that discovered the new moons, Scott Sheppard, Carnegie Institute for Science astronomer, tells Gizmodo's Kevin Hurler via email.

According to Sky & Telescope, while the first sightings were made some time ago, scientists had to follow each object throughout its complete orbit to determine that it was a moon. This turned out to be a long process since the new moons circle Jupiter far away; all 12 require at least 340 days to travel around the planet, and 9 take over 550 days. They were able to be identified by the Minor Planet Center, which is housed at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, between late December and late January after follow-up observations proved that they were moons.

According to Mike Alexandersen, an astronomer at the Minor Planet Center who collaborated on reporting the findings, "We want to have a complete map of all the objects out there so we know what to anticipate and can organize missions appropriately."

The newfound moons are relatively smaller than Earth's moon; their diameters vary from 0.6 to 2 miles. Due to the fact that once-larger moons clashed with other celestial bodies and fragmented into smaller satellites, Jupiter and Saturn are predicted to contain a significant number of tiny moons. The number of moons around both planets is anticipated to increase.

In the next years, researchers anticipate learning further about Jupiter and its satellites. The European Space Agency intends to send a mission to study Jupiter's ice moons this spring. The Europa Clipper mission, which will circle Jupiter and carefully examine its moon Europa to determine if it has characteristics that potentially sustain life, is slated to launch in October 2024, according to NASA.

Sheppard emailed Marcia Dunn of the Associated Press, "I hope we can see one of these distant moons near in the future to better understand their origins.

According to Alexandersen, a deeper understanding of Jupiter's moon population would assist safeguard spacecraft and improve the likelihood of future missions.

The next time there is a voyage to Jupiter, the mission may be designed to have close flybys (and therefore cool images) of as many of those minor moons as feasible, according to him, by charting out the entire moon system and knowing about as many moons as possible.