April 6, 2003
6 More Moons of Jupiter Found
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


HONOLULU, April 5 (AP) — Six more moons have been found orbiting Jupiter, pushing the planet's total to 58.

The discovery was announced on Friday by David Jewitt and Scott Sheppard of the University of Hawaii and Jan Kleyna of Cambridge University.

The moons are tiny, perhaps a mile or so across, and orbit Jupiter at a distance of tens of millions of miles. They were found as part of a search using the world's two largest digital cameras, mounted on telescopes atop Mauna Kea.

As they orbit, the moons travel in the opposite direction of Jupiter's rotation. That suggests the moons were captured by Jupiter's gravitational tug, perhaps not long after the planet formed, Mr. Jewitt said.

Jupiter has more moons than any other planet. The largest four were discovered by Galileo in 1610. Of those, Ganymede is the largest known moon in the solar system, with a diameter of 3,260 miles.

Mr. Jewitt's team has found 18 Jupiter moons this year and expects to find more.

"We think if we keep on pushing it with the cameras and telescopes we have available, we'll get to about 100," Mr. Jewitt said.



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