Astronomers have recently detected 128 additional moons orbiting Saturn, making it the planet with the most moons in the solar system. With a confirmed total of 274 moons, Saturn now boasts nearly twice as many moons as all other planets combined.
Saturn Takes the Moon Crown from Jupiter
The previous record-holder, Jupiter, has been surpassed due to new observations made with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Dr. Edward Ashton from the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan, who led the research, confirmed the groundbreaking findings.
“Based on our projections, I don’t think Jupiter will ever catch up,” Ashton noted. As of February 2024, Jupiter has 95 confirmed moons, significantly fewer than Saturn’s impressive count.
Discovering the New Moons
The recently identified moons are categorized as “irregular moons.” These celestial bodies are relatively small, measuring just a few kilometers in diameter. They were discovered using a technique called “shift and stack,” which involves combining multiple images to enhance faint objects in space.
Most of the newly found moons belong to the Norse group, suggesting they will eventually be named after figures from Norse mythology. Researchers believe these moons are fragments of larger bodies that broke apart following cosmic collisions.
Insights from Cosmic Collisions
Professor Brett Gladman from the University of British Columbia explained that these moons are likely remnants of violent impacts with comets or even other moons orbiting Saturn. “Many of these moons probably formed from significant collisions that occurred over the last 100 million years,” Professor Gladman stated.
Uncovering the Solar System’s History
Understanding Saturn’s vast collection of small moons could provide crucial information about the early history of our solar system. The chaotic period of planetary migrations and frequent collisions helped shape the current arrangement of celestial bodies.
The discovery of these moons may also help explain the origins of Saturn’s iconic rings. Some scientists theorize that the rings were formed from a destroyed moon, which would align with findings about the numerous fragmented moons now orbiting the gas giant.
Future Missions and What’s Next
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is preparing for a flyby of Mars, where it will pass within 300 km of Deimos, the planet’s smallest and most distant moon. The mission aims to uncover Deimos’ origins, determining whether it was formed by a massive impact on Mars or captured by the planet’s gravity as an asteroid.
After completing its investigation of Deimos and its larger companion Phobos, Hera will proceed to the asteroid Dimorphos, which was deliberately impacted by a NASA probe three years ago. This mission will provide essential data for developing planetary defense strategies to prevent potential asteroid collisions with Earth.