08-10-2019, 11:03 AM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Mt. Kuring-Gai
Posts: 5,928
|
|
|
Saturn overtakes Jupiter as planet with most moons - 20 new ones discovered
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Paul Rincon, Science Editor, BBC, 8 Oct 2019
Saturn has overtaken Jupiter as the planet with the most moons, according to US researchers.
A team discovered a haul of 20 new moons orbiting the ringed planet, bringing its total to 82; Jupiter, by contrast, has 79 natural satellites.
The moons were discovered using the Subaru telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii.
Each of the newly discovered objects in orbit around Saturn is about 5km (three miles) in diameter; 17 of them orbit the planet "backwards".
This is known as a retrograde direction. The other three moons orbit in a prograde direction - the same direction as Saturn rotates.
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Paul Rincon, Science Editor, BBC, 8 Oct 2019
The finds were made by applying new computing algorithms to data gathered between 2004 and 2007 with the Subaru telescope. These algorithms were able to fit orbits to potential moons identified in the old data.
|
Story here -
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49962134
|