Scientists have discovered a whopping 20 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the planet’s total to a record-breaking 82 moons, overtaking Jupiter’s 79 known moons. Using some of the largest telescopes in the world over a three-year period, these newly discovered satellites are “irregular moons.” This means they have distant, elliptical orbits around Saturn and often move in a retrograde, or opposite direction, of Saturn’s rotation. The fact that they follow similar retrograde orbits suggests that they may have come from a larger original moon, which broke apart millions of years ago.
The newly discovered moons range in size, with some as small as Washington DC’s National Mall, measuring only 2.5 km across. The classification of a moon remains disputed with Saturn, as it incorporates an uncountable number of rocks and ice specks, many just a few kilometers across and hence very difficult to detect. Further moons could be confirmed in the coming days, fuelling attention on projects studying subsurface waters.
The Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn for 13 years before plunging into the gas giant’s atmosphere in 2017, revealed new insights into the planet’s rings. The age of these rings has long been a mystery, with some arguing they are as old as the Solar System itself, while others suggest that they emerged more recently. A recent study published in Science Advances reveals that the rings are likely no more than 100 million years old, emerging at a time when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.
The study’s authors used data from Cassini to determine the amount of soot on the rings, the rate at which it is falling, and the age of the dust. They concluded that the rings were formed 10 to 100 million years ago, providing new insights into the history of our Solar System. The increase in knowledge pertaining to Saturn’s rings and moons is leading to the development of advanced technologies like a snake-like robot, which is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has also captured the closest-ever photographs of a tiny, lumpy moon close to Saturn’s outermost ring called Atlas. Measuring just 19 miles across, Atlas is odd, but it is just one of many of Saturn’s moons. The planet has more than 50 named moons, 62 moons in confirmed orbits, and dozens of characterized “moonlets.”
The Moon and Saturn will be in conjunction, visible in the night sky on the morning of April 7, when they will share the same right ascension. To see the Moon and Saturn, which will be separated by approximately one-third the size of a human fist held out at arm’s length, look towards the constellation Aquarius. Binoculars should suffice to view the two objects, which will be visible until 6:14 a.m. EDT, after which they will mostly be washed out by sunlight.
Stargazers in the northeast US will also be able to see Saturn and a 17% illuminated crescent moon in the sky an hour before sunrise on Sunday, April 16, according to Jeffrey Hunt’s skywatching website, When the Curves Line Up. The crescent moon makes it a good time to see Earthshine, or sunlight’s reflection from Earth’s surface, illuminating the dark side of the moon.
As scientists continue to explore the depths of our Solar System, the discovery of new moons orbiting Saturn provides invaluable insights into its history and formation.
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