Why does Jupiter have so many moons?

Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. Jupiter is also called as a gas giant. The gasses present in the atmosphere of Jupiter are Hydrogen, Helium, Methane, Ammonia, Hydrogen Deuteride, Ethane, and water. Jupiter is associated with Grand Tack Hypothesis because Jupiter moved towards the inner solar system.

There are 67 moons or natural satellites revolving in the orbit of Jupiter. Many of the natural satellites of Jupiter were discovered in 1975. Out of the 67 satellites, 51 satellites of Jupiter have a diameter less than or equal to 10 kilometers, which means they are very small in size. 16 satellites were discovered in 2003 and the search for its new satellites is still on.

Laplace Resonance:

Galilean Moons of Jupiter were discovered by Galileo and  Simon Marius in the year 1610. These are the moons which are bigger in size and are visible from the earth with the help of binoculars. These satellites of Jupiter are the largest natural satellites of any planet in the solar system. The largest moons of Jupiter are four in number and they are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Laplace Resonance is the orbital pattern formed by the first three natural satellites ( Io, Europa, and Ganymede) of Jupiter. The  Voyager missions discovered the outer smaller natural satellites of moon increasing the number to 67.  After the discovery of all the moons, now the moons are classified into six different groups.

Origin of Moons of Jupiter:

Jupiter is the largest planet. The distance between Jupiter’s orbits is larger. This larger distance captures the astronomical bodies revolving in the space. The gravitational force extended by the Jupiter brings these bodies into its orbit which becomes a natural satellite of Jupiter. The gravitational area of Jupiter is much more than any other planet because of its size and shape. Jupiter is 318 times bigger in mass than that of the Sun.

Along with it, the shape of the Jupiter also matters to attract the moons. Jupiter is a perfect sphere. The orbits of Jupiter are in a regular pattern, which is why the moons once reached the orbit of the Jupiter tend to remain there. The moons of Jupiter are also not disturbed by the other astronomical bodies. The lunar orbit of the satellites is maintained by the Jupiter because of the massive size of Jupiter. 

The moons of Jupiter can not be said as natural phenomena, such massive gas giants generally capture the moons and once they enter the orbit, the gravitational force helps the smaller satellites to remain in the orbit.

The solar system embodies many secrets which scientists are yet to find out. The solar system is a favorite dwelling of such a scientist who wishes to solve out the mysteries of the universe. Among the eight planets in our solar system, there are various questions that pique the interest of the people. One such question is why Jupiter, which is the fifth planet in the solar system, has so many moons while other planets like Mars or the Earth have so less?

There are primarily two reasons for this. One of them is the mass. Jupiter is an extremely massive planet, so much so that its mass is three hundred and eighteen times more than the mass of the Earth. Therefore, due to the sheer mass of Jupiter, anything that passes near the planet will either be flung right out of the solar system, torn apart by the gravitational tides or will be captured in the planet’s orbit. This is why anything that makes its way towards Jupiter is thrown away, ripped or trapped in the orbit and thus, comes to be known as its moon.

Another reason is that Jupiter orbits just below the Asteroid Belt, which contains many asteroids ranging from sizes 1 kilometer to 1,000 kilometers. Thus, most of Jupiter’s moons are these asteroids that have been trapped by the planet’s orbit as the asteroids wandered too near to escape the planet but not as near to be ripped off.

Jupiter is the 5th planet from the sun and the largest planet in the solar system. It is the giant gas planet constitute of mainly Helium and Hydrogen (primarily). Due to its rapid rotation, Jupiter is not circular or elliptical but it is an oblate spheroid. Jupiter lacks a well-defined surface.

Now coming to its moon count, it has 67 moons out of which 4 large moons were discovered by Galileo. These 4 moons are visible in the clear sky using binoculars. Most popular ones are Lo, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede (largest moon in the solar system).

Massive Size and Gravitational Pull:

It is the most massive planet with a larger gap between its lowest and highest orbits. Due to its size, it is obvious that Jupiter gravitational pull is very much strong. This two reasons, 1.  Orbital gaps and 2. Gravity may lead to attraction of random rock bodies and, thus turning into its satellite.

Moon Hijacker:

Other reason behind having so many moons must be no destabilizing orbital events by other bodies. Unlike earth which destabilizes any celestial body around the moon. The giant size of Jupiter does not allow any other planet to destabilize the moon revolving around it. Thus, we can conclude most of the moons around Jupiter are captured not the newly formed.

Benefits of Being far Away from Sun:

The massive size and also distance from the sun has led to a huge sphere of influence. Due to this even a small rock object or gas object tends to start rotating around Jupiter. That is why we also say that Jupiter has many moons and also mysterious moons too. Sometimes, some of its moons disappear too.

Formation of Jupiter:

After the formation of our Sun, a cloud of dust and debris was left which eventually collapsed under its own gravity to form planets. Jupiter was the first planet that was formed so it ended up collecting most of the material from the gas cloud, and kept growing bigger and bigger over time. The material that Jupiter could not ingest, were ejected out into the space which later took the shape of its moons. 

In fact, some believe Jupiter is a failed star. Just like our Sun, it has the right ingredients - Hydrogen and Helium - the two most abundant elements in the Universe, but it did not have enough mass to create the right amount of internal temperature and pressure necessary to generate nuclear fusion in its core. So, Jupiter became a planet instead.

Gravitational Field of Jupiter:

Captured Moons of Jupiter:

Jupiter has 8 regular moons orbiting in a circular path around it. Of all the Jupiter's moons, the four discovered by Galileo - Europa, Io, Callisto, and Ganymede - are the most popular. They are known as the Galilean moons. Ganymede is the largest moon in our Solar System. In fact, it's 8% larger than the planet Mercury! 

The remaining moons of Jupiter follow elliptical and eccentric orbits, with a long orbital inclinations, around the planet. It is believed that these irregular moons have been captured from space by the immense gravitational pull of Jupiter.