Taipei, Taiwan – Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery, uncovering 128 new moons orbiting Saturn. This newfound treasure trove of moons cements Saturn’s position as the undisputed leader in the solar system when it comes to celestial companions. Previously, the title of “moon king” belonged to Jupiter, but Saturn now boasts a remarkable 274 moons – nearly twice as many as all the other planets combined.
The team responsible for this groundbreaking find had initially identified 62 moons orbiting Saturn using the Canada France Hawaii telescope. Intrigued by faint indications of additional moons, they continued their observations and were astonished to discover an additional 128 moons in 2023. Dr. Edward Ashton, the lead researcher and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Academia Sincia in Taiwan, expressed confidence that Jupiter would never be able to catch up with Saturn’s vast moon collection.
The International Astronomical Union recently recognized the 128 new moons, assigning them temporary strings of numbers and letters until they are officially named. Drawing from tradition, these moons will ultimately be named after Gallic, Norse, and Canadian Inuit gods. The majority of the newly discovered moons belong to the Norse cluster, prompting astronomers to delve into the realm of obscure Viking deities in their naming process.
These 128 moons, identified as “irregular moons,” are shaped like potatoes and are only a few kilometers in size. The techniques employed to detect these moons involved a method known as “shift and stack,” where sequential images capturing the moon’s movement across the sky are combined to enhance visibility. The abundance of these irregular moons raises questions surrounding the definition of what qualifies as a moon, a concept that Dr. Ashton believes deserves further clarification.
Moving forward, the intricate study of Saturn’s numerous moons could unveil crucial insights into the chaotic early stages of the solar system. The clustering of the new moons suggests that they may have originated from larger celestial bodies that collided and fractured in the last 100 million years. Prof Brett Gladman, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia, speculates that these moons are remnants of larger captured moons that were shattered due to violent collisions, either with other Saturnian moons or passing comets.
Furthermore, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is set to conduct a Mars flyby, bringing it within 190 miles of Deimos, Mars’s smallest and most distant moon. This moon, approximately 7 miles in diameter, is believed to have formed from a colossal impact on Mars or an asteroid captured in the planet’s orbit. Hera will also image Phobos, Mars’s larger moon, before proceeding with its mission to examine the asteroid Dimorphos, which was intentionally struck by a NASA probe three years ago. The detailed survey conducted by Hera will aid in developing technology capable of diverting potentially hazardous asteroids that may pose a threat to Earth in the future.