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Five of Jupiter鈥檚 newly discovered moons have been given names

Last year, astronomers announced they鈥檇 found 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter, and now聽five of them have been named after daughters and granddaughters of Zeus
Five newly discovered moons orbiting Jupiter have now been named after Greek goddesses
NASA

Jupiter has 79 known moons, and now five more of them have official names. In July 2018, Scott Sheppard at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC and his colleagues announced that they had found 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter. Five of those small moons have now been by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

When moons are found, they鈥檙e given a numerical designation as a placeholder. The discoverers have naming rights, and they submit their preferred names to the IAU for approval.

The IAU has a set of rules for each planet that govern how its moons can be named. All of Jupiter鈥檚 moons are named after figures from Greek and Roman mythology 鈥撀爀ither the lovers or descendants of聽Jupiter or聽Zeus. The last letters of the moon鈥檚 name are governed by which direction it orbits the planet.

Following those rules, five聽of Jupiter鈥檚 moons have now been named after descendants of Zeus. Two of them聽are daughters of the moon goddess Selene, called Pandia and Ersa. Another, called Eirene, is named for the daughter of Themis, the goddess of justice and wisdom. The last two聽are Philophrosyne and Eupheme, after granddaughters of Zeus.

Small moons like these five are probably shards of much larger objects that crashed together long ago, smashing each other into pieces. If we can find all of them聽鈥� there are almost certainly more than we know of now聽鈥� it could help us piece together what Jupiter鈥檚 original moon system looked like.

Topics: Jupiter / Moons