00:00Saturn is known for its iconic rings, but it should probably also be known for its moons.
00:09The ringed world was already the record holder for the most natural satellites of any planet
00:13in the solar system at 146. However, now astronomers say we can add 128 new ones
00:19to its orbiting repertoire. For anyone doing the math, that's an astronomical 274 moons
00:24in total orbiting Saturn. So how did they go unnoticed for so long? Well, there are a couple
00:28of reasons. First, they are all irregular in that they are further away from Saturn than expected
00:33and orbit in non-conventional ways. The other reason is that many of the moons are likely a
00:37result of a collision which occurred around 100 million years ago, meaning Saturn has a wild mix
00:42of pro-grade and retrograde orbiting moons, meaning there's a mix of moons traveling both with and
00:47against its orbit. Still, many of the recently discovered orbiters are extremely tiny, though
00:52there's no size threshold a moon has to be to be considered moon-worthy. Some of them are even less
00:56than 2.5 miles wide, revealing just how much better astronomy tools are becoming as Saturn
01:02resides some 985 million miles from Earth.
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