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Astronomers from the university of Hawaii have identified eleven new satellites orbiting the planet Jupiter bringing the total number of moons to 39. Previously Saturn was thought to have the most satellites at 30 and was unofficially dubbed the moon king. The new Jovian moons are all between 2 and 4 kilometers in diameter and are thus much smaller than Jupiter's planet-like satellites Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, the smallest of which is 3138 km wide. The orbits of the new moons are also very different from the larger satellites since they have non-circular, eccentric paths which are retrograde, that is, they move in the opposite direction to Jupiter's rotation. Retrograde satellites such as Jupiter's newly discovered moons are thought to have been passing asteroids and comets that have been captured by the giant planet. The larger satellites may have formed in orbit around Jupiter in a disk of dust and gas in the early Solar System and thus formed in a similar way to the planets in the dusty gas disk of the solar nebula surrounding the early Sun. The new moons of Jupiter travel in clusters and the researchers think they are pieces of larger comets that have been broken up during their encounter with the giant planet. Comets are weak objects that are easily broken apart by the tremendous gravities of the giant planets. The disruption of captured comets probably also explains the formation of the rings of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.
More info: CNN Article
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