Discoveries

June 02, 2023

Take That, Jupiter

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Saturn now reigns supreme after astronomers discovered an additional 62 new moons orbiting the sixth planet from the sun, Mashable reported.

The new tally puts the total number of moons to 145, making Saturn the first known planet in space to have more than 100 satellites.

Researcher Edward Ashton and his team explained in their study that the new findings were possible thanks to a new detection technique that involves stacking photos to capture more details in a single frame.

The novel method helps reveal fainter and smaller cosmic objects. It was previously used in finding moons around Neptune and Uranus.

The researchers explained that they had to closely monitor these celestial bodies to determine whether they were actual moons or just asteroids.

“Tracking these moons makes me recall playing the kid’s game Dot-to-Dot,” Ashton quipped. “But with about 100 different games on the same page and you don’t know which dot belongs to which puzzle.”

The new satellites are remnants of collisions that shattered a bigger moon or moons into pieces, they suggested. Many of them are considered “irregular” because of their tipped, oval-shaped orbits.

Before the new findings, Jupiter claimed the title of most moons in our solar system after scientists came across new satellites around the gas giant back in February – taking the total to 95 moons.

This story originally appeared in the June 02, 2023 newsletter, Seed to Stem.