Saturn Now Has 146 Known Moons

And, the Winner is. . .?

At the moment, Saturn. It has reclaimed the trophy for the most satellites orbiting a planet. According to Sky & Telescope’s September, 2023 issue, the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center has recorded the orbits of 63 new moons traveling around our most beautiful ringed planet, bringing its total count to 146. Now in second place is Jupiter, with only 95. Surprisingly, this number had given Jupiter honors earlier this year.

These discoveries are the result of observations made with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope between 2019 and 2021. In studying size distribution of Saturn’s moons, astronomers located many more smaller ones than larger ones. This leads them to believe that they are the result of a collision between two objects near Saturn as recently as 100 million years ago. Many of these are within about 2 miles across. As such, it is believed there are probably dozens more to be found, and possibly hundreds of even smaller moons orbiting the planet.

Apparently, Saturn will be the moon winner for a long time!