jupiter has 80 known moons. the four largest were seen by galileo with his primitive telescope, and nine more can be seen from earth with modern telescopes. the rest of the moons have been identified by spacecraft. the smallest moon (s/2003 j 12) is only one kilometre across. the largest, ganymede, has a diameter of 5,262 kilometres. it is bigger than the planet mercury. the other three galilean moons are io, europa and callisto. because of the way they orbit jupiter, gravity affects three of these moons greatly. the friction caused by the gravity of europa and ganymede pulling on io makes it the most volcanic object in the solar system. it has over 400 volcanoes, more than three times as many as earth.