Astronomers have recently discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the planet’s total to 274—more than any other in the Solar System.
The team behind the discovery had previously identified 62 Saturnian moons using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Noting faint indications of additional moons, they conducted further observations in 2023.
“Sure enough, we found 128 new moons,” said lead researcher Dr. Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. “Based on our projections, I don’t think Jupiter will ever catch up.”
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially recognized the moons and temporarily assigned them alphanumeric designations.
The moons will eventually be named after Gallic, Norse, and Canadian Inuit deities, following the established naming convention for Saturn’s moons. Most of the newly discovered moons belong to the Norse group, prompting astronomers to search for lesser-known Viking deities. “Eventually, the criteria may have to be relaxed a bit,” Ashton said.
The moons were identified using the “shift and stack” technique, in which astronomers capture sequential images tracking a moon’s movement across the sky and combine them to enhance its visibility. All 128 newly discovered moons are classified as “irregular moons”—potato-shaped objects only a few kilometers in diameter.
“It’s the largest batch of new moons,” said Mike Alexandersen of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who co-authored a paper on the discovery, set to be published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
“I don’t think there’s a proper definition of what qualifies as a moon. There should be,” said Ashton. However, he noted that the team may have reached the current technological limit for detecting Saturnian moons.
“With current technology, I don’t think we can significantly improve upon what has already been accomplished for moons around Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune,” said Ashton.
Professor Brett Gladman, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia, stated that the moons likely originated from a few larger captured moons that were shattered by violent collisions, either with other Saturnian moons or passing comets.
Studying the dynamics of Saturn’s numerous moons may also provide insight into the origin of the planet’s rings. Scientists have proposed that the rings could be remnants of a moon torn apart by Saturn’s gravitational forces.
References:
1 MPEC 2025-E155 : THIRTY-THREE NEW SATURNIAN SATELLITES – MPC – March 11, 2025
2 MPEC 2025-E153 : SIXTY-ONE NEW SATURNIAN SATELLITES – MPC – March 11, 2025
3 2025 Discovery of more Saturnian Moons – The University of British Columbia – March 11, 2025
4 MPEC 2025-E154 : THIRTY-FOUR NEW SATURNIAN SATELLITES – MPC – March 11, 2025