A team of astronomers has identified 128 new moons encircling Saturn, solidifying the planet’s reputation as the “moon king” of our solar system. Researchers from Taiwan, Canada, France, and the U.S. made the announcement, surpassing Jupiter’s moon count of 95 with Saturn now boasting a total of 274 moons. This recent discovery supports the long-held theory that Saturn’s rings were formed by a colossal collision around 100 million years ago, as explained by astronomer Mike Alexandersen from the Center of Astrophysics.
These newly-found moons are relatively small, measuring just a few kilometers across, according to lead researcher Edward Ashton from the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan. They are described as “very faint” and appear as tiny white dots against a dark backdrop in images captured by astronomers, leaving much about their characteristics still unknown.
The discovery process began in 2019 when Ashton’s team utilized the Canada France Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii to capture images of Saturn. By aligning and combining multiple images using the “shift and stack” technique, they were able to differentiate moving objects around the planet, including stars and the moons in orbit. Unfortunately, due to the brightness of the full moon phase, observations were limited to the new moon phase.
This latest finding follows a previous discovery of 64 new moons around Saturn in 2023, further expanding the planet’s moon count. Future research may focus on determining the composition and other properties of these faint moons, although the challenge lies in their visibility.
