Saturn apparently has 145 moons. So eat this, Jupiter.

Jupiter briefly made headlines in February when new research showed the planet had so many more moons than it once did, making it the new solar system leader.

But Shani’s back, baby.

A group of astronomers has announced Discovery of 62 more moons It orbits the sixth planet from the Sun, bringing its total of natural satellites to 145. If confirmed by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, the new tally should make Saturn the world’s first planet. space More than 100 moons are known.

Edward Ashton, who initiated the study at the University of British Columbia, used a detection technique that involves stacking photographs to capture more details in a single frame. The process helps to uncover fainter and smaller cosmic objects. Astronomers have used this method to locate moons around Neptune and Uranus, but not so far for Saturn, according to the university. Researchers from other institutions collaborated on the project.

“Tracking these moons reminds me of the children’s game of dot-to-dot,” Ashton said. a statement, “But with about 100 different games on the same page and you don’t know which point belongs to which puzzle.”

The Minor Planet Center, which lists moon designations, has published Saturnian’s 42 new moons in the past week or so. It’s working to process and verify others in the coming week, Matthew Payne, the center’s director, said in an email to Mashable on Friday, May 12.

Assuming that all of the study candidates receive their designations, this would mean that Saturn has more moons than any of the other planets in the Solar System.

Saturn: 145.

Jupiter: 95, (Apparently, its own tally has ticked over three more moons.) february announcement According to, it had become the new record holder NASA List.)

“Tracking these moons reminds me of playing the child’s game dot-to-dot. But with about 100 different games on the same page and you don’t know which dot belongs to which puzzle.”

want more Science More tech news delivered straight to your inbox? sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter Today.

When the Saturn Research Group took sequential images of the Moon as it moved through space, they were able to collect more data to strengthen the Moon’s signal. This allowed the team, which Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope For his observations in Hawaii, to find a moon about 1.5 miles wide.

The search began in 2019 when Ashton and colleague Matthew Beaudoin were students. The objects were tracked for two more years to make sure they were not asteroids passing close to the planet. He and his team also used previous discoveries that had not been tracked long enough to establish the Moon’s orbits.

Researchers say many of the new moons are remnants of collisions that broke the larger moon or moons into pieces. All of the newly discovered ones are thought to be “irregular,” meaning they have large, tipped, oval-shaped orbits, the researchers said. These moons also tend to cluster based on their inclined orbits.

“As one pushes to the limits of the modern telescope,” said Gladman, UBC astronomy professor and study associate. in a statement“We are finding increasing evidence that a medium-sized moon orbiting backwards around Saturn erupted about 100 million years ago.”