back to article By Jove! Astroboffins spot 12 new spanking moons around Jupiter

Jupiter already had the most moons in the Solar System, but now scientists have discovered twelve new ones bringing the total up to 79. They were first spotted last year by a team of astronomers originally on the hunt for the elusive Planet Nine, a hypothetical body speculated to exist beyond Neptune. Unfortunately, they …

  1. wolfetone Silver badge

    I bet they've counted one of them twice.

  2. 89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921

    Troubling to discover the odd ball around Uranus.

  3. Little Mouse

    By Jove?

    By Jupiter!

  4. Frumious Bandersnatch
    Paris Hilton

    By Vectron's Beard!

    Gonna get in here before the International Astronomical Union does: this last one, at least, is not a moon. I'm hereby demoting it to "dwarf moon" status.

    (no ice cream icon? make mine a 1999)

  5. Sgt_Oddball
    Coat

    can't be me...

    I was never really there....

    Mine's the one with one with the pager for Dr. Bowman...

  6. Number6

    It sounds like they need to adopt a Plutonian solution and declare that any moon smaller than a certain percentage of the largest one should be declared to be a Jovian Pet Rock and have its moon status revoked.

  7. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
    Gimp

    Spanking moons eh?

    Oooer etc.

    1. frank ly

      Re: Spanking moons eh?

      "They have proposed to call the new moon Valetudo, ... , the goddess of health and hygiene. "

      If you don't brush your teeth and wash behind your ears, you'll find out.

  8. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alert

    SMEG!

    That astro-navigation exam just got a tad harder for Rimmer.

    1. Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble?

      Re: SMEG!

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      *Does a funny little dance*

      *Faints*

      1. Sgt_Oddball
        Gimp

        Re: SMEG!

        I thought it was a full Rilmmer? (Extend right arm in front to shoulder height, rotate hand around wrist 5 times then move hand to forehead like an empty palm navy salute before finally lowering arm to side of body....in the most gimpish way you can imagine).

        Now you'll have to excuse me, someone's used battleship grey instead of sea grey again...

  9. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Now, are the sure all of these are really moons?

  10. alain williams Silver badge

    What is a moon ?

    Just as they demoted Pluto from planet status (because it is too small) I wonder if they might demote some of these new moons from 'moon' status to become 'satellites'. Is a rock 1 km is diameter large enough to be considered a moon ?

    This could be interesting.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: What is a moon ?

      "That's no moon!"

      (oblig)

      1. Patched Out

        Re: That's no Moon!

        That's a 1/1000th scale Proof-of-Concept model for a planet destroying super-weapon!

    2. David Nash Silver badge

      Re: What is a moon ?

      Pluto wasn't demoted, strictly speaking, because it was too small. It was because other bodies had been found of similar size, and they didn't want to open the floodgates.

      Actually the only criterion for planethood that Pluto doesn't fulfil, is that it has not "cleared it's neighbouring region".

      1. IanRS

        Re: What is a moon ?

        Pluto has not cleared its neighbouring region because it crosses the orbit of Neptune, and has not cleared it out of the way.

        So why is Neptune considered a planet?

      2. annodomini2

        Re: What is a moon ?

        Neither has Jupiter, look at all those Moons!

      3. Robert Helpmann??
        Headmaster

        Re: What is a moon ?

        The IAU definition of planet works fine for purposes of of some scientific fields but not for others and that is its weakness. It is of an ad hoc nature and lacks general utility. Much better would be to pare down the definition to something along the lines of "a planet is a non-stellar object orbiting a stellar object" and then work on classification of the different types of planets much in the way that stellar objects have been.

        Even more telling, there is no IAU definition of moon.

        1. Martin Budden Silver badge

          Re: What is a moon ?

          Worse still, the IAU definition only allows planets orbiting our Sun, not those orbiting other stars. Bunch of numptys if you ask me.

  11. ravenviz Silver badge
    Facepalm

    ...satellites around our largest planet?

    ‘We’ own the solar system now do we?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Valetudo? As in "Anything goes"?

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