{"id":794298,"date":"2025-03-12T09:37:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T14:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=794298"},"modified":"2025-03-12T09:37:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T14:37:05","slug":"128-new-moons-discovered-around-saturn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=794298","title":{"rendered":"128 new moons discovered around Saturn"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Astronomers have recently discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the planet\u2019s total to 274\u2014more than any other in the Solar System.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure enough, we found 128 new moons,\u201d said lead researcher Dr. Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. \u201cBased on our projections, I don\u2019t think Jupiter will ever catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Saturn with its rings. Image credit: NASA\/JPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially recognized the moons and temporarily assigned them alphanumeric designations.<\/p>\n

The moons will eventually be named after Gallic, Norse, and Canadian Inuit deities, following the established naming convention for Saturn\u2019s moons. Most of the newly discovered moons belong to the Norse group, prompting astronomers to search for lesser-known Viking deities. \u201cEventually, the criteria may have to be relaxed a bit,\u201d Ashton said.<\/p>\n

The moons were identified using the \u201cshift and stack\u201d technique, in which astronomers capture sequential images tracking a moon\u2019s movement across the sky and combine them to enhance its visibility. All 128 newly discovered moons are classified as \u201cirregular moons\u201d\u2014potato-shaped objects only a few kilometers in diameter.<\/p>\n

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Small particles in Saturn\u2019s rings. Image credit: NASA JPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the largest batch of new moons,\u201d 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a proper definition of what qualifies as a moon. There should be,\u201d said Ashton. However, he noted that the team may have reached the current technological limit for detecting Saturnian moons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith current technology, I don\u2019t think we can significantly improve upon what has already been accomplished for moons around Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune,\u201d said Ashton.<\/p>\n

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Full view of Saturn. Image credit: NASA JPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Studying the dynamics of Saturn\u2019s numerous moons may also provide insight into the origin of the planet\u2019s rings. Scientists have proposed that the rings could be remnants of a moon torn apart by Saturn\u2019s gravitational forces.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

1<\/sup> MPEC 2025-E155 : THIRTY-THREE NEW SATURNIAN SATELLITES \u2013 MPC \u2013 March 11, 2025<\/p>\n

2<\/sup> MPEC 2025-E153 : SIXTY-ONE NEW SATURNIAN SATELLITES \u2013 MPC \u2013 March 11, 2025<\/p>\n

3<\/sup> 2025 Discovery of more Saturnian Moons \u2013 The University of British Columbia \u2013 March 11, 2025<\/p>\n

4<\/sup> MPEC 2025-E154 : THIRTY-FOUR NEW SATURNIAN SATELLITES \u2013 MPC \u2013 March 11, 2025<\/p>\n


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Astronomers have recently discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the planet\u2019s total to 274\u2014more than any other in the Solar System. The team behind the discovery had previously identified… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":794299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=794298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/794299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=794298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=794298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=794298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}