Galileo first observed the moons of Jupiter on January 7, 1610 through a homemade telescope. He originally thought he saw three stars near Jupiter, strung out in a line through the planet. The next evening, these stars seemed to have moved the wrong way, which caught his attention. Galileo continued to observe the stars and Jupiter for the next week.
On January 11, a fourth star (which would later turn out to be Ganymede) appeared. After a week, Galileo had observed that the four stars never left the vicinity of Jupiter and appeared to be carried along with the planet, and that they changed their position with respect to each other and Jupiter.
Finally, Galileo determined that what he was observing were not stars, but planetary bodies that were in orbit around Jupiter. This discovery provided evidence in support of the Copernican system and showed that everything did not revolve around the Earth.
Galileo published his observations in Sidereus Nuncius in March 1610.
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, has 67 moons and counting.https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/moons
Read & learn:http://solarviews.com/eng/galdisc.htm
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