<br /> <p>Astonomers discovered 12 new moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, bringing the total number of Jovian moons to 79, the Carnegie Institution for Science said on July 16.</a>.</p><p>The team, which had previously discovered a planetoid with the most distant orbit in the solar system, found two new moons that travel close to the planet in the same direction; nine other moons moving in retrograde, farther from Jupiter, and one moon they describe as an “oddball,” with a distant, inclined orbit.</p><p>Studying the orbits of moons can teach scientists about the solar system’s early years, the Carnegie Institution for Science said. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science via Storyful</p><br />
