A team led by Carnegie's Scott S. Sheppard has found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. This brings the ringed planet’s total number of moons to 82, surpassing Jupiter, which has 79. The discovery was announced Monday by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center.
Each of the newly discovered moons is about five kilometers, or three miles, in diameter. Seventeen of them orbit the planet backwards, or in a retrograde direction, meaning their movement is opposite of the planet's rotation around its axis. The other three moons orbit in the prograde—the same direction as Saturn rotates.
The moons don't have names yet, and scientists are asking for the public's help to name them.
Contest details are available here.
Contest End Date: December 6, 2019
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Image: NASA/jpl-caltech/space science institute
You should keep Mayank of one of the moon on Saturn because Mayank means moon ��.
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