Moon, or irregular moon, vs asteroid.The new moons were discovered by a team led by Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, who used a technique called "shift and stack" to find these smaller and fainter moons around Saturn.
The technique uses a set of images shifting at the same speed at which a moon moves through the sky to enhance the signal from that moon. Moons that are too faint to be seen in single images can reveal themselves in the resultant "stacked image."
Astronomers have used this method to search for moons around the ice giants Neptune and Uranus, but this is the first time it has been applied to the solar system's second-largest planet, Saturn.
Though some of the moons had been spotted as early as 2019, it takes more than sighting an object close to a planet to confirm it is a moon and not an asteroid making a brief close passage to that planet. To change these objects from "suspected moons" to "confirmed moons" of Saturn, the astronomers had to track them for several years to ensure each is actually orbiting the gas giant.
Performing a painstaking process of matching objects detected on different nights over the course of 24 months, the team tracked 63 objects that they ended up confirming as moons. One of these satellites was revealed back in 2021, with the remaining 62 moons gradually announced over the past few weeks.
Sky and Telescope mentions 95 moons for Jupiter.Jupiter leap-frogged Saturn for the moon crown in February 2023 when 12 new moons were found around the solar system's largest planet, bringing the total number of known Jovian moons to 92.
As of press time, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) has published the orbits of 41 new moons in a series of announcements, called Minor Planet Electronic Circulars, issued between May 3rd and 10th. Brett Gladman (University of British Columbia, Canada) said May 11th that the center would release orbits for an additional 21 moons shortly. That will bring Saturn's total moon count to 145, including 24 “regular” moons, which formed around the planet, and 121 smaller, “irregular” moons on wide, elongated, and tilted orbits. The new reports more than double Saturn’s number of irregular moons, leaving Saturn far ahead of Jupiter’s 95 moons, which had put Jupiter in first place earlier this year.
Greedy bastard.Astronuc said:Saturn reclaims 'moon king' title with 62 newfound satellites, bringing total to 145
https://www.space.com/saturn-moon-king-62-newfound-satellites
Astronomers have discovered 62 new moons orbiting the ringed planet Saturn, bringing to total to 145 Moons, with 121 irregular moons and 24 regular moons.
Moon, or irregular moon, vs asteroid.
Sky and Telescope mentions 95 moons for Jupiter.
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/new-observations-double-saturns-irregular-moons/
Also in the article,Irregular moons are eccentric, inclined objects that are found
orbiting, usually at many hundreds of planetary radii, around all
four giant planets. The moons are thought to be Sun-orbiting
planetesimals that were captured by the giant planets during the
late stages of planet formation or collisional fragments of them.
As of early 2019, no new Saturnian irregulars had been
discovered, and almost none of the known moons had been
imaged, for over 10 yr. Because this is comparable to or longer
than some of the observed arcs, the growing orbital
uncertainties require further astrometric observations to main-
tain accurate ephemerides (Jacobson et al. 2012). Currently,
there are 58 known Saturnian irregular moons, of which 7
belong to the Inuit group, 5 to the Gallic group, and 46 to the
Norse group, 6 of which were considered “lost” at the start of
2019 by Jacobson et al. (2012).
Go down that path and before you know it, Pluto will no longer be a planet.Astronuc said:Perhaps the term 'moon' should be reserved for 'round' planetary satellites and 'satellite' be reserved for those irregular objects revolving around a planet.
Yeah, I imagine that there would be some debate/argument about how and where to draw the line. I would go so far as to count specs of dust, otherwise, Saturn's rings become many moons.Universe Today published an article "Jupiter Probably Has 600 Small, Irregular Moons," September 10, 2020Vanadium 50 said:Go down that path and before you know it, Pluto will no longer be a planet.
Without some sort of minimum size, counting moons is hopeless. Is every speck of dust a moon?
and thenClearly, they have not been identified. The article mentions, "In 2017, researchers published a study announcing the discovery of 12 more irregular moons orbiting Jupiter. Prior to this new research, the number of known Jovian irregulars was 71. And scientists have speculated for years that Jupiter has an undiscovered population of smaller moons. Some astronomers have said that the large giants all have the same number of satellites, despite differences in their masses. It’s just that they’re hard to see."
The team of astronomers found 52 objects in their images which they identified as irregular moons. The objects had magnitudes down to 25.7, and that corresponds to objects with diameters of approximately 800 meters (875 yards.) Of those 52, seven of the brightest were already-known irregular moons. While those seven are prograde moons, the other 45 are very likely retrograde moons, meaning they orbit opposite of Jupiter’s direction of rotation.
Best not to anger the God of War.Astronuc said:Perhaps the term 'moon' should be reserved for 'round' planetary satellites and 'satellite' be reserved for those irregular objects revolving around a planet.
Michael Brown? I agree - look what he did to poor Pluto.russ_watters said:Best not to anger the God of War.
This is a good point because when I first read the title of this thread I thought to myself "wow, we are still finding moon sized objects that we didn't know about within our own milky way? ..."Vanadium 50 said:Go down that path and before you know it, Pluto will no longer be a planet.
Without some sort of minimum size, counting moons is hopeless. Is every speck of dust a moon?
Moons seem to fall into a few categories:
1. Big, round, and rocky: Earth's moon, Titan, and the four largest moons of Jupiter fall into this category.
2. Smaller, round and icy: Rhea is the prototype. I'd also include Triton,the large Uranian moons, and many of the larger Saturnian moon: Tethys, Dianoe. The lower limit on size is in the 100-150 km radius ballpark.
I admit that "rocky" and "icy" are somewhat subjective, and certainly position dependent.
3. Irregular moons. Again, the line between "round" and "irregular" is blurry. I would draw the line between Mimas and Hyperion, but others might draw it differently. I'm not sure of distinguishing between rocky and icy makes sense, as there are only two known to be rocky: Deimos and Phobos.
And how many full moons did they find?Astronuc said:Astronomers have discovered 62 new moons orbiting the ringed planet Saturn
60 full moons, 120 half moons, 240 quarter moons....Swamp Thing said:And how many full moons did they find?
If Beethoven had lived on Saturn , all the Moonlight sonatas would need added numbering to them.Vanadium 50 said:60 full moons, 120 half moons, 240 quarter moons....
No, or not from these new moons anyway. Many of them are around 3km across, so their total projected area is tiny compared to our moon. And Saturn is much further from the Sun than we are anyway.artis said:With that many moons positioned in orbit around a planet, doesn't it make the planet very bright during the night time on said planet?
Recent discoveries about Saturn's moons include the identification of new moons, detailed observations of their surface compositions, and insights into their geological activity. For instance, the Cassini mission revealed geysers on Enceladus, suggesting a subsurface ocean, and intricate details of Titan's atmosphere and surface, including liquid methane lakes.
As of the latest count, Saturn has 145 confirmed moons. This number has grown over the years as new moons have been discovered through telescopic observations and data from space missions like Cassini.
Saturn's moons are unique due to their diverse characteristics and geological features. For example, Titan has a thick atmosphere and liquid hydrocarbon lakes, Enceladus has active geysers ejecting water-ice, and Iapetus has a striking two-tone coloration. This diversity makes Saturn's moon system one of the most intriguing in our solar system.
Enceladus is considered highly interesting because of its active geysers that spew water-ice and organic compounds from a subsurface ocean. These findings suggest that Enceladus could potentially harbor conditions suitable for life, making it a key target for astrobiological studies.
Discoveries on Titan, such as its dense atmosphere, weather systems, and surface lakes of liquid methane and ethane, provide valuable insights into prebiotic chemistry and the potential for life in extreme environments. These findings help scientists understand the diversity of planetary bodies in the solar system and the processes that can lead to the formation of complex organic molecules.