Saturn is well-known as the champion of the Solar System when it comes to its number of natural satellites (aka moons). Just like our unmistakable Moon revolves around our planet permanently, Saturn has not one but dozens of such cosmic objects.
The ringed-gas giant was previously known to have 82 moons orbiting around it. According to a new article from SyFy.com, that number went up even more.
150 moons, plus/minus 30
Thanks to new research, we now know that the number of moons that Saturn has is even higher: 150 pieces, plus or minus 30.
Saturn is well-known for its unmistakable rings that are made of many small pieces of water ice. What exactly is “many” in this case? Well, probably even trillions of pieces.
The “good” news is that astronomers don’t have tremendous homework to do of counting all those pieces of rock from Saturn’s rings when it comes to establishing how many moons the gas giant has. Not any cosmic object that revolves around a planet qualifies as a moon.
Finding moons is also difficult due to the fact that they’re small and near a huge bright planet.
Oddly enough, Saturn could even lose one of its moons in the future – Titan. We’re actually talking about the most important moon of the gas giant. Titan has been perceived by astronomers as a great world to explore due to its environment. Wikipedia has some interesting things to say about Titan:
It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only known moon or planet other than Earth on which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.
Therefore, next time you think that our Moon is unique, you must remember that Saturn practically has a lot more of those things revolving around it.
