Saturn's extended family has grown larger. Astronomers have found four more moons orbiting the planet, taking its total to 22.
The moons are irregular and in orbits about 15 million kilometres from Saturn — much further than its regular moons (see left). Their discovery puts Saturn back in the lead as the planet with the most satellites.
The moons were spotted during the past two months by several telescopes. They were due to be announced at this week's meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Science in Pasadena, California.
Brett Gladman, an astronomer at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, France, first noticed two of the objects in images from the European Southern Observatory's 2.2-metre telescope in Chile . The others were found using a larger instrument in Hawaii.
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Adam, D. Four more moons for Saturn. Nature 407, 931 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35039684
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35039684
