How did the moons of Jupiter get there?

At last count. Jupiter had 16 moons:

Name............Distance in KM.,,,....Size.....Orbit Inclination
Adrastea            127,000            13             --
Metis               129,000            20             --
Amalthea            180,000            70             0.4
Thebe               222,000            55             0.8
Io                  422,000          1815             0.0
Europa              671,000          1569             0.5
Ganymede          1,070,000          2631             0.2
Callisto          1,883,000          2400             0.5
Leda             11,094,000             8            26.1
Himalia          11,480,000            90            27.6
Lysithea         11,720,000            20            29.0
Elara            11,740,000            40            24.8
Ananke           21,200,000            15           147
Carme            22,600,000            20           164
Pasiphae         23,500,000            20           145
Sinope           23,700,000            20           153
The inner 8 satellites have very low inclination, planar, orbits and are thought to have formed out of the orbiting accretion disk that fed the formation of Jupiter itself, 4 billion years ago. There is a big gap in distances between these satellites and the outer families beginning with Leda at 11 million miles from Jupiter. These are thought to, possibly, form two groups including captured asteroids from the asteroid belt, or passing cometary bodies from perhaps the outer solar system on the basis of the abrupt change in the orbital inclinations of the inner ( 27 degree) and outer ( 160 degree) groupings.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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