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Suggest names for Saturn’s latest crop of moons

This artist’s conception shows the 20 newly discovered moons orbiting Saturn. (Illustration courtesy of Carnegie Institute for Science. Saturn image courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute. Starry background courtesy of Paolo Sartorio / Shutterstock.)

Saturn has pulled ahead of Jupiter again in the moon discovery race, thanks to a batch of 20 outer moons that bring the ringed planet’s total tally to 82.

The newly reported satellites, confirmed by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, were found by the same team that reported spotting 12 new moons of Jupiter last year.

As was the case with those moons of Jupiter, the discovery team at the Carnegie Institution for Science is soliciting suggestions for naming the newly reported moons of Jupiter. Right now, they’re known only by their numerical designations, such as S/2004 S29 or S5593a2.

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Hubble boosts evidence for first exomoon

Kepler-1625b and moon transiting star
An artist’s impression shows the Jupiter-sized exoplanet Kepler-1625b transiting its parent star with the Neptune-sized candidate exomoon in tow. (Dan Durda Illustration)

With a lot of help from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers now feel confident enough to publish their evidence for the first moon detected in orbit around a planet beyond our solar system.

But they’re still not completely confident.

“At this point, it’s up to us to report what we’re seeing, hand it over to the community and let the community probe it,” said Columbia University astronomer Alex Teachey, one of the authors of a study about the find published in the open-access journal Science Advances. “If they see what we see, I expect some people will be convinced and other people will be skeptical. And that’s all part of the process.”

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Discoveries boost Jupiter’s retinue to 79 moons

Jupiter moons
The oddball Jovian moon, known as Valetudo, crosses the orbits of moons that move in the opposite direction.  (Carnegie Institution of Science / Roberto Molar Candanosa)

Astronomers searching for signs of a hypothetical “Planet Nine” have instead come up with 12 new moons of Jupiter, including one that hints at a cosmic crack-up.

The discoveries were made more than a year ago, and the orbits of two of the moons were confirmed soon after they were found. It took much longer for the other 10 to have their orbits verified.

“It takes several observations to confirm an object actually orbits around Jupiter,” Gareth Williams of the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center explained in a news release. “So, the whole process took a year.”

The Minor Planet Center published the remaining 10-pack’s orbital parameters today, marking their formal acceptance as Jovian moons. That brings Jupiter’s total tally to 79 moons, easily besting runner-up Saturn’s count of 62.

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