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How Many “Official” Moons Does Jupiter Have?

-- | April 26, 2016

Question: I am writing a piece for middle school students about the planets of our solar system and am trying to find an up-to-date figure for how many moons are officially recognized around Jupiter. I’ve seen figures from 23 to 49 and more pending. — Fiona

Answer: There are two good references to the number of “official” moons orbiting Jupiter. The first is a listing from NASA’s Jupiter Moons page, which lists 50 named moons plus an additional 17 “provisional” moon. I believe that provisional moons have not yet been assigned permanent names. The second source of this listing is on Scott Sheppard’s Jupiter Satellite and Moon page, which lists 67 as of March 2015. This second reference appears to list the sum of the 50 named moons plus the 17 provisional moons. For your summary I would use the total of named and provisional moons, or 67.

Jeff Mangum

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