Saturn long held the record for having the most moon, however just a few months ago after the discovery of more moons orbiting Jupiter, that planet took the lead. Well, now using new data and image stacking methods, astronomers have just discovered dozens of new moons circling Saturn, putting it firmly back in the lead.
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00:00Saturn long held the record for having the most moons.
00:06However, just a few months ago after the discovery of more moons orbiting Jupiter, that planet
00:11took the lead.
00:12While now using new data and image stacking methods, astronomers have just discovered
00:16dozens of new moons circling Saturn, putting it firmly back in the lead.
00:20In total, researchers with Academia Seneca Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in
00:25Taiwan found 62 new orbiters, bringing Saturn up to 145 moons in total.
00:31In fact, the astronomers' new observations were even able to identify one of the smallest
00:35moons ever, one that is only 1.55 miles in diameter, meaning it's even smaller than Pluto's moon
00:41sticks, which is only 9.9 miles across and the previously smallest moon ever discovered.
00:47Finding moons around our solar system's largest planets is harder than one might expect.
00:51Science Alert reports, Jupiter and Saturn are two of the brightest objects in the entire
00:54system, meaning the light that reflects off of them from the sun obfuscates anything else
00:59that might be in the area, especially those planets' own moons, and they need to be tracked
01:03over the course of several orbits to make sure they are moons and not just a passing object
01:07like a meteor, with the lead researcher on the project likening their identification to
01:11a children's Connect the Dots game, but with hundreds of games on a single page.