Showing all posts tagged: Saturn
No planet has two hundred and seventy plus moons, not even Saturn
15 March 2025
Saturn’s moon count leapt a few days ago, after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided to classify an additional one-hundred-and-twenty-eight objects orbiting the ringed planet, as moons. It must be quite the feat of achievement for Saturn to boast it has the most number of satellites, by far, of any other planet in the solar system.
These new moons now mean Saturn is possessed of two-hundred-and-seventy-four satellites. But let’s be serious here. No planet has that many moons, real moons. All of Saturn’s new “moons” are just tiny rocks. They count as moons though, because they have a “proven orbit” around Saturn:
Most of the moons are irregular and tiny, just a few miles across. By comparison, our moon has a diameter of 2,159 miles (3,475 kilometers). But they do have proven orbits around Saturn, which is a key element of official moon candidacy.
Former planet Pluto has a proven orbit around the Sun, yet it is now considered a dwarf planet. This because it no longer meets the IAU’s definition of a planet. We can have different types of planets, it seems, but a moon is always a moon, even it is pet rock size.
But if planetary bodies need to fulfil a certain criteria to be deemed a (real) planet, then a tighter classification of what constitutes a moon, a real moon, is long overdue. If we use our moon, the Moon, as a benchmark, then perhaps Saturn has half a dozen or so “real” moons. The rest would be, as I wrote of Mars’ so-called moons in 2014, merely captured objects.
ETA: on the subject of Saturn, the planet’s fabulous rings will seem to disappear later this month, as far as observers on Earth are concerned. This is because the rings will be edge-on to us, a phenomenon called ring plane crossing, something that happens about every fifteen years.
The rings will become become visible again later in the year though. Who knows, without the rings to distract astronomers on Earth, maybe another batch of moons will be found orbiting Saturn.
RELATED CONTENT
Bits of Saturn, a Twitter account posting Cassini probe images
27 August 2022
Speaking of Twitter, while a number of accounts may be automated or bots, they’re not all bad. Bits of Saturn, which posts raw images of the ringed planet, taken by NASA’s Cassini probe, between 2004 and 2017, is one you should follow.
RELATED CONTENT