Twelve New Moons Are Found in Saturn’s Orbit
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Astronomers have discovered a dozen new moons circling Saturn -- all but one orbiting in a direction opposite of the planet’s spin, suggesting the moons formed elsewhere in the solar system and were captured by the planet’s gravitational field.
The 12 new moons, which are 1.86 miles to 4.35 miles wide, were announced this week by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and David Jewitt of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy.
Astronomers had previously identified 34 moons orbiting Saturn.
