Posted on 03/12/2025 11:27:12 AM PDT by Red Badger
The race between Jupiter and Saturn for the most moons in the Solar System may have just finally come screeching to a halt.
A team of scientists has found a whopping 128 previously unknown moons hanging around Saturn, in a discovery officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union. This brings the planet's total number of known moons to 274, leaving Jupiter, with its mere 95 moons, in the dust.
The first hint that there were more moons awaiting discovery came between 2019 and 2021, when 62 such objects were identified. Other small objects were also spotted at the time that couldn't yet be designated.
"With the knowledge that these were probably moons, and that there were likely even more waiting to be discovered, we revisited the same sky fields for three consecutive months in 2023," says astronomer Edward Ashton of Academia Sincia in Taiwan.
"Sure enough, we found 128 new moons. Based on our projections, I don't think Jupiter will ever catch up."
VIDEOAS AT LINK.................
These moons, to be clear, are not like Earth's Moon, nice and large and pleasingly spherical. They are tiny moonlets, all blobby and potato-shaped, just a few kilometers across – what are known as irregular moons.
The researchers believe that they originally comprised a small group of objects captured by gravity in Saturn's orbit early in the Solar System's history. A subsequent series of collisions would have smashed them to moony bits, resulting in the preponderance of small rocks the astronomers have found.
In fact, they believe a collision must have taken place as recently as 100 million years ago, which is a very short eyeblink of time for a planet. The location of the moons, too, within the Norse group of Saturn's moons, suggests that this is the place where the recent collision occurred.
The Norse group are moons that orbit in a retrograde direction, at inclined angles, and on elliptical paths, outside Saturn's rings. Like the newly discovered moons, they, too, are relatively potatoey.
Potatoes. Rings. Sounds familiar, somehow…
One haul of 64 moons has been detailed in a new paper submitted to the Planetary Science Journal. The preprint is available on arXiv.
That looks like a ‘Judge’ one of my buddies had in the Marines............
To which Pluto said, “What am I?”
Saturn gets 128 new moons. The earth only gets one new moon, and that only once a month.
I'm old enough to remember when Jupiter had 12 moons and Saturn had 9. And the planet Pluto had none.
Aliens put them there!
Jupiter and Saturn each have a moon that’s larger than the planet Mercury. And several moons larger than Pluto.
At least they didn’t find new rings around, well, you know.
Saturn’s Werewolves must be out of control.
Exactly my thought. https://www.astronomy.com/science/multiple-mini-moons-could-be-orbiting-earth/
even if you wanted to do that how would you do it
or stop doing it if you discovered that you are doing it
I bet they have an absolutely insane werewolf problem...
Not just rings, but its own little asteroid belt.
These were the generation ships that first brought us to this solar system... We used some of them to get to Mars where war and Communism destroyed the planetary ecology.
We used our last reserves to get us here... This is our last hope unless we can re-develop the tech to get back to Mars, and then back to our ships around Saturn...
” all blobby and potato-shaped”
Like a group of liberal protesters
I just love technical scientific jargon!............
Why was the previous count up 2^6 and this time it’s up 2^7? Coincidence? Software limitation? Or…? (Twilight Zone music)
Nice!
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark ·
· post new topic · subscribe ·Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·
Is this good news for the Moonies?
[snip] These moons, to be clear, are not like Earth's Moon, nice and large and pleasingly spherical. They are tiny moonlets, all blobby and potato-shaped, just a few kilometers across – what are known as irregular moons... a collision must have taken place as recently as 100 million years ago, which is a very short eyeblink of time for a planet. The location of the moons, too, within the Norse group of Saturn's moons, suggests that this is the place where the recent collision occurred. The Norse group are moons that orbit in a retrograde direction, at inclined angles, and on elliptical paths, outside Saturn's rings. Like the newly discovered moons, they, too, are relatively potatoey. [/snip]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.