Astronomers have announced the discovery of 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, raising questions about why the planet has such a huge number of satellites. Investigating this phenomenon could provide us with crucial knowledge about the evolution of our Solar System. The discovery is 'fascinating', says Samantha Lawler, an astronomer at the University of Regina in Canada, who also contributed observations that led to the finding but did not contribute to the forthcoming paper about them. 'It just shows how much is out there.' The moons, which were officially recognized this week by the International Astronomical Union, will be described in a paper led by astronomer Edward Ashton at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, Taiwan. The study will be published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society. Unlike our own Moon, which is 3,475 kilometres wide, these small rocks are just a few kilometres across in size. They swing around Saturn in...
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