Astronomers have made an exciting discovery around Saturn. They have found 128 new moons, giving the ringed planet a huge lead in the solar system’s moon count. This discovery puts Saturn far ahead of Jupiter, which previously held the title for the most moons.
Saturn’s Moon Count Soars
With this latest addition, Saturn now has 274 confirmed moons—nearly double the number of all other planetary moons combined. Until February 2024, Jupiter held the record with 95 known moons. However, researchers using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope suspected there were more undiscovered moons around Saturn. After further observations in 2023, their suspicions were confirmed.
“We found 128 new moons,” said Dr Edward Ashton, a researcher at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. “I don’t think Jupiter will ever catch up.”
The newly detected moons have been officially recognised by the International Astronomical Union. For now, they have numerical designations but will eventually receive names based on Gallic, Norse, and Canadian Inuit mythology, following tradition. Most belong to the Norse cluster, prompting astronomers to search for additional Viking deity names.
Clues About the Solar System’s Past
The team used a technique called "shift and stack" to detect the moons. This method involves capturing sequential images of their movement and stacking them together to make them visible. All 128 new moons are classified as irregular, meaning they are small, potato-shaped objects just a few kilometres wide.
The discovery raises questions about what truly defines a moon. “There’s no clear definition of a moon, but there should be,” Ashton said. However, he noted that current technology may have reached its limit in detecting more moons around Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Studying these small moons could provide insights into the chaotic early solar system when planetary migrations and collisions were common. The clustering of these moons suggests they are remnants of larger objects shattered by collisions in the last 100 million years.
“These moons are likely fragments of captured objects that broke apart after violent impacts,” said Prof Brett Gladman of the University of British Columbia.
This discovery could also shed light on the origin of Saturn’s rings, which some scientists believe formed when a moon was torn apart by the planet’s gravity.
ESA’s Hera Mission to Explore Mars’ Moon
In a separate mission, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is set to fly past Mars on Wednesday. It will come within 300 kilometres of Deimos, the planet’s smallest and most distant moon. Scientists believe Deimos could have formed from a massive impact on Mars or been captured from an asteroid belt.
Hera will also observe Mars’ larger moon, Phobos, before heading towards asteroid Dimorphos. This asteroid was deliberately struck by a NASA probe three years ago. The spacecraft will conduct a detailed survey of the impact site, helping researchers refine technology that could protect Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids in the future.
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