Jupiter officially has the most moons in the solar system, discovery of 12 new satellites confirms - Livescience.com

Jupiter was already the king of the solar system, and new discoveries give the massive planet another way to reign supreme: It now has the most moons.

Their distant and retrograde orbits likely mean these objects used to be asteroids and eventually got caught up in Jupiter's gravity, according to the researcher who detected them.

Jupiter's best-known natural satellites are its four Galilean moons, named after astronomer Galileo Galilei, who observed them in 1610.

They include Io, with its lava lakes and enormous volcanic eruptions; Europa, with its icy shell and inner water ocean; Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system (it's larger than Mercury, according to NASA(opens in new tab)); and Callisto, the most cratered moon in the solar system.

This year, the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer(opens in new tab) (known as JUICE) is set to launch toward the gas giant to explore these four moons, and in 2024, NASA's Europa Clipper is slated to launch on a mission to get a closer view of Europa.

In her spare time, JoAnna likes to hike, read, paint, do crossword puzzles and hang out with her cat, Pancake.