Galileo discovered the four largest moons of which planet in 1610?
Moons of Jupiter Moons of Jupiter There are 79 known moons of Jupiter. This gives Jupiter the largest number of moons with reasonably stable orbits of any planet in the Solar System. The most massive of the moons are the four Galilean moons, which were independently discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius and were the first objects found to orbit a body that was neither Earth nor the Sun. From the end of the 19th century, dozens of much smaller Jovian moons have been discovered and have received the names of lovers or daughters of the Roman god Jupiter or
Galilean moons by the illustrious name of Your Highness before all others. Galileo initially called his discovery the Cosmica Sidera ("Cosimo's stars"), in honour of Cosimo II de' Medici (1590–1621). At Cosimo's suggestion, Galileo changed the name to Medicea Sidera ("the Medician stars"), honouring all four Medici brothers (Cosimo, Francesco, Carlo, and Lorenzo). The discovery was announced in the "Sidereus Nuncius" ("Starry Messenger"), published in Venice in March 1610, less than two months after the first observations. Other names put forward include: The names that eventually prevailed were chosen by Simon Marius, who discovered the moons independently at the same time as