We all know that Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, but that is not why it is the planet with the most moons. This was thought to be the case, but according to the Minor Planet Center, Saturn is now a total of 117 known moons. Jupiter, for its part, has a few fewer: about 95 moons.
This is just the latest update of a tug of war between the giants of the solar system. Saturn may not hold the record for the number of moons in the Solar System forever.
Saturn has more moons than we imagined
Humanity discovered the first moons of Saturn with optical telescopes in the 17th century. We continue to find them today due to numerous factors. There is some disagreement about what constitutes “a moon.” Questions such as “When does something go from rubble to moon?» are especially problematic in the case of Saturn, because its famous rings are made up of countless specks of rock and ice. Some of these objects are only a few kilometers in diameter, making them extremely difficult to detect, even for spacecraft like Cassini and Voyager, which have come close to Saturn and its moons. As technology improves, it has been possible to identify objects that were functionally invisible to humans as recently as a few years ago.
In February 2023, Jupiter briefly regained the lead in the lunar race for the number of moons with the addition of 20 newly discovered moons. As of early 2023, the official number of Saturn's moons was 83, but two updates from the Minor Planet Center have raised that number to 117. Although many of the observations confirming the existence of these moons date back years, already this More than 30 new moons have been announced each year. This gives Saturn a substantial advantage over Jupiter, and the gap may widen. Reports suggest that in the next few days even more moons could be confirmed.
Later this year, the Europa Clipper will launch on a mission to study one of Jupiter's moons which is believed to have a subsurface ocean. Also, that property might not be as rare as we thought in the case of Jupiter's moons. Saturn has several natural satellites, including Enceladus, in which previous observations have revealed geysers of water gushing from vents in the icy surface. A team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on a snake-like robot that could slide through cracks in the ice to access the aquatic realm.
