emirates7 - Astronomers have identified 128 additional moons orbiting Saturn, solidifying its position as the planet with the highest number of natural satellites in the solar system.
Jupiter previously held the title of "moon king," but with this discovery, Saturn now boasts a total of 274 moons—nearly twice as many as all the other planets combined.
The research team had earlier detected 62 moons around Saturn using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Noticing faint indications of more undiscovered moons, they conducted further observations in 2023, leading to the latest findings.
As of February 5, 2024, Jupiter has 95 moons with confirmed orbits. The newly identified Saturnian moons have now been officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union, though they currently have temporary designations consisting of numbers and letters.
The astronomers utilized a method called "shift and stack" to detect the moons. This technique involves capturing sequential images that track a moon’s movement across the sky and then combining them to enhance its brightness, making it visible.
All 128 newly discovered moons belong to the category of "irregular moons"—small, potato-shaped objects only a few kilometers in diameter.
The increasing number of these tiny moons may eventually spark debates over what should officially be classified as a moon. Studying these celestial bodies more closely could provide insights into the early solar system, a time characterized by planetary migrations and frequent collisions.
The newly identified moons appear in distinct clusters, indicating that they likely originated from larger bodies that broke apart due to collisions within the last 100 million years. Their orbits are large and elliptical, differing in inclination from the more circular orbits of Saturn’s closer moons.
“These moons are probably fragments of a few originally captured bodies that were shattered by violent impacts, either with other Saturnian moons or with passing comets,” explained Professor Brett Gladman, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia.
Investigating the complex dynamics of Saturn’s moon system could also help scientists understand the origins of the planet’s iconic rings. Some researchers propose that Saturn’s rings may have formed from the remnants of a moon that was torn apart by the planet’s immense gravitational forces.
Jupiter previously held the title of "moon king," but with this discovery, Saturn now boasts a total of 274 moons—nearly twice as many as all the other planets combined.
The research team had earlier detected 62 moons around Saturn using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Noticing faint indications of more undiscovered moons, they conducted further observations in 2023, leading to the latest findings.
As of February 5, 2024, Jupiter has 95 moons with confirmed orbits. The newly identified Saturnian moons have now been officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union, though they currently have temporary designations consisting of numbers and letters.
The astronomers utilized a method called "shift and stack" to detect the moons. This technique involves capturing sequential images that track a moon’s movement across the sky and then combining them to enhance its brightness, making it visible.
All 128 newly discovered moons belong to the category of "irregular moons"—small, potato-shaped objects only a few kilometers in diameter.
The increasing number of these tiny moons may eventually spark debates over what should officially be classified as a moon. Studying these celestial bodies more closely could provide insights into the early solar system, a time characterized by planetary migrations and frequent collisions.
The newly identified moons appear in distinct clusters, indicating that they likely originated from larger bodies that broke apart due to collisions within the last 100 million years. Their orbits are large and elliptical, differing in inclination from the more circular orbits of Saturn’s closer moons.
“These moons are probably fragments of a few originally captured bodies that were shattered by violent impacts, either with other Saturnian moons or with passing comets,” explained Professor Brett Gladman, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia.
Investigating the complex dynamics of Saturn’s moon system could also help scientists understand the origins of the planet’s iconic rings. Some researchers propose that Saturn’s rings may have formed from the remnants of a moon that was torn apart by the planet’s immense gravitational forces.