Fleet of new moons discovered around Jupiter

The circled white dot is one of ten newly discovered Jovian moons, seen against a background of stars and galaxies

By Richard Stenger
CNN.com Writer

(CNN) -- Ten new satellites have been spotted around Jupiter, bringing the total number of known moons around the gas giant in the solar system to 28, astronomers announced this week.

The discovery continues an unprecedented flurry of new satellite sightings in the solar system. The official tally of known moons around large planets has more than doubled during the past 18 months.

The researchers identified the ten satellites using a large telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. They also found an 11th moon that had been "lost."

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"It was discovered 25 years ago and then lost. We rediscovered it," team member Scott Sheppard told CNN.com.

The observations represent the largest number of satellites ever discovered at one time.

The new satellites are highly different than their better known counterparts like Io and Europa. They are much smaller, with estimated diameters ranging from 3 to 8 kilometers.

They have large and highly eccentric orbits. Some go around Jupiter in a clockwise direction, while others orbit counter- clockwise.

Composed mostly of University of Hawaii graduates students, the astronomy team speculates that Jupiter in its infancy captured the newly discovered satellites from a group of small icy and rocky objects that orbit the sun.

Astronomers credit improved technology for the rash of recent satellite sightings. Many large observatories have installed new detectors that can instantly produce images, rather than rely on traditional photographic plates that slow down the search process.

Currently Saturn boasts the highest number of known satellites with 30, a dozen of which were first identified in the last several months.

Yet there is a chance that Jupiter could gain the lead.

"We expect to find a few more moons when we do another search next year," Sheppard said.

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University of Hawaii

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