The Saturn system has always been a contender in the contest for most moons in the solar system. For a while, it was duking it out with Jupiter for the title, but after a recent trio of announcements from the International Astronomical Union (IAU), Saturn has taken a commanding lead.
Saturn’s moons have been the subject of a lot of astronomical attention over the years. They range in size from the planet-sized Titan, which is larger than Mercury, to tiny potato-shaped moons. Among Saturn’s crowded collection of moons, you’ll find Enceladus covered in a global ice sheet. Beneath the ice is a giant ocean where astronomers think life might exist. There’s also Titan, of course, the only place besides Earth where you can find lakes and rain (made of liquid methane) and the only moon with a significant atmosphere. It’s also a point of interest in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Even before the recently announced moons, Saturn had more than anyone could reasonably keep track of. Now, astronomers have announced the confirmation of 128 new moons around Saturn, bringing its total to 274, more moons than those around all the other planets in the solar system combined.
Saturn is getting crowded with 128 newly discovered moons
Since we can't yet build The Ark's interstellar spacecraft and go visit the Saturn system ourselves, these moons were identified using ground-based telescopes right here on Earth. The moons were discovered by a team of astronomers using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope. Observations took place between 2019 and 2021, then again in 2023.
Astronomers took pictures of the sky around Saturn for hours at a time, then repeated the observation the next night. Once astronomers had as many pictures as they could get, the images were stacked on top of one another to enhance the light signal from such small and distant objects.
Each of the 128 new moons are between 2 and 4 kilometers (1.2 to 2.5 miles) across and irregular. Most moons follow more circular orbits and travel on more or less the same plane as the rest of the solar system. These moons, by contrast, have highly elliptical orbits and are inclined at odd angles. Those unusual qualities help astronomers understand where they came from.
Researchers suspect that Saturn captured larger moons at some point in the past, then those moons broke up, shattering into so much space shrapnel. They may have been created approximately 100 million years ago during an incredible collision event which also helped create Saturn’s famous rings.
There are probably even more moons around Saturn and elsewhere
This discovery is only the latest batch of moons found around Saturn in recent years. Astronomers announced the discovery of 20 moons in 2019, then another 62 in 2023, in addition to the 128 announced this week.
The moons were discovered in part thanks to recent advancements in telescope technologies and observing techniques. They were always there, of course, we just couldn’t see them. Which forces us to ask how many more moons are around Saturn and the other planets, still waiting to be discovered.
The Ark returns to SYFY for Season 3 in 2026. The first two seasons are streaming now on Peacock.