Saturn Is 'Moon King' Of Solar System With Discovery Of 128 New Satellites

Astronomers have recently made a fascinating discovery, claiming to have located 128 new official moons, orbiting Saturn, taking its tally of moons to 274 -- the most for any planet in the Solar System. International Astronomical Union recognised the discovery made by a team of astronomers led by Edward Ashton at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan which could help study the evolution of our neighbourhood.

With the new spottings, Saturn has usurped Jupiter which has 95 known moons, while Uranus (28) and Neptune (16) remain third and fourth on the list.

"Sure enough, we found 128 new moons. Based on our projections, I don't think Jupiter will ever catch up," said Mr Ashton

However, unlike Earth's Moon which is 3,475 kilometres wide, these small rocks are just a few kilometres across in size. They swing around Saturn in chaotic, distant orbits, often moving in reverse relative to the planet's major moons, such as Titan and Rhea.

“I don't think there's a proper definition for what is classed as a moon. There should be. With current technology, I don't think we can do much better than what has already been done for moons around Saturn, Uranus and Neptune,” said Mr Ashton.

The new batch of moons was discovered by stacking images from the Canada France Hawaii telescope. They will eventually be given names based on Gallic, Norse and Canadian Inuit gods, in keeping with convention for Saturn's moons.

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'Previous findings'

While most of the moons are new discoveries, the observations by Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, played a crucial part in the study.

Between 2004 and 2007, Mr Sheppard hinted at the existence of these moons using the 8.2-metre Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to examine patches of space near Saturn and detected faint light from these small, irregular moons.

However, the majority of them could not be confirmed as moons because their orbits could not be definitively tracked. Mr Aston was able to revisit Mr Sheppard's findings and using modern, state-of-the-art equipment, managed to discover the moons.

Saturn's high moon count might also stem from the composition of the objects orbiting. As per Mr Sheppard, Saturn is further from the Sun, meaning it probably captured more icy objects that could "fracture easier than Jupiter's rocky objects".