The International Astronomical Union recognized another 128 rocks around Saturn as its natural satellites. This means that the planet ranks first in the race in possession of the largest number of moons in the solar system, i.e. 274. The newly discovered objects are small and irregular rocks circulating in the so -called Nordic group.
Until recently, the number of all known moons of Saturn was 146 objects. The majority of them are not similar in the appearance of our only natural satellite. These are rather small and irregular rocks, mostly located in the belt of the planet's rings. The scientific community has always been aware that more moons could hide around the planet.
It wasn't mistaken. Recently, the International Astronomical Union recognized as many as 128 new rocks as the official moons of Saturn. Thanks to this, the number of natural planet satellites increased to 274. In the case of the Solar System, in the second place, in the category of the numbers of moons, there is Jupiter and its “only” 95 satellites.
Saturn in the lens of the webba telescopeNASA/ESA/CSA/Matthew Tiscareno/Matthew Hedman/Maryame El Moutamid/Mark Showalter/Leigh Fletcher/Heidi Hammel/Joseph Depasquale
Saturn in the lens of the Hubble telescope. Two darker “spokes” on the ring b are visible on the leftNASA/ESA/Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC)/ALYSSA PAGAN (STSCI)
More potatoes than balls
The earlier pool of new moons was discovered between 2019 and 2021. At that time, 62 rocks were noticed around Saturn, which had never been seen before. This lit the imagination of scientists who began to look for even more accurately. It turned out that there are more such rocks, but it was impossible to specify immediately that they were moons.
– Being aware that they are probably moons and that even more is waiting to be discovered, we again observed the same fields of heaven for three consecutive months in 2023 – said astronomer Edward Ashton from the research institute Academia Sincia in Taiwan. – Indeed, we found 128 new moons. Based on our forecasts, I don't think Jupiter will ever “catch up” Saturn [z liczbą księżyców – przyp. red.].
All of the newly discovered moons are tiny and their shape resembles potatoes with a size of a few or several kilometers than beautifully formed balls.
Saturn and Titan, the largest of his moonsNASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Where can they come from?
One of the hypotheses of scientists is that the pool of new moons can be a group of objects intercepted by gravity to Saturn's orbit. Their history can reach the beginnings of the solar system. Later events made these rocks crush into pieces.
The second hypothesis is slightly less spectacular. He says that these rocks can circulate around the planet for just 100 million years, which is really a blink of an eye on the scale of the history of the Solar System. The rocks are located in the so -called Nordic group – and therefore the space in which the moons move with reverse movement. The most famous satellites from this place are Febe, Suttungr, Thrym or Loge. All local moons are outside the planet's rings and move at an angle, elliptical sewage.
Some new moons have already been described in the article for the “Planetary Science Journal” scientific journal. The other louder will be done in the near future.
Saturn in the lens of the Cassini probeNASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Source of the main photo: NASA/ESA/CSA/Matthew Tiscareno/Matthew Hedman/Maryame El Moutamid/Mark Showalter/Leigh Fletcher/Heidi Hammel/Joseph Depasquale