Monday, February 16, 2015

How many moons does Saturn have?

Saturn is a fascinating planet and very mysterious even though scientists have been studying it closely for hundreds of years. 
Christiaan Huygens discovered the first known moon of Saturn in the year 1655 and named it Titan. Giovanni Domenico Cassini (later on the Cassini spacecraft would be named after him) discovered four more moons in the 1670s and 1680s: Iapetus (1671), Rhea (1672), Dione (1684), and Tethys (1684).
The next moon of Saturn wasn't discovered until over 100 years later—Mimas and Enceladus were found by William Herschel in 1789. The next two moons were found in 1848 (Hyperion) and 1898 (Phoebe).
Currently, astronomers believe that Saturn has a total of 61 moons. It's possible there are more—or less. Why less? Because of the 61 moons, 8 are considered provisional moons, meaning they haven't been totally confirmed as moons yet. 
NASA's Saturn Moon page is very comprehensive and has data on every single moon (provisional or not!). You can find it here. 
Here's a list of all of Saturn's moons. First up are the confirmed moons, and then the eight provisional moons:


1. Aegaeon2. Aegir

3. Albiorix

4. Anthe

5. Atlas

6. Bebhionn

7. Bergelmir

8. Bestla

9. Calypso

10. Daphnis

11. Dione

12. Enceladus

13. Epimetheus

14. Erriapus

15. Farbauti

16. Fenrir

17. Fornjot

18. Greip

19. Hati

20. Helene

21. Hyperion

22. Hyrrokkin

23. Iapetus

24. Ijiraq

25. Janus

26. Jarnsaxa

27. Kari



28. Kiviuq

29. Loge

30. Methone

31. Mimas

32. Mundilfari

33. Narvi

34. Paaliaq

35. Pallene

36. Pan

37. Pandora

38. Phoebe

39. Polydeuces

40. Prometheus

41. Rhea

42. Siarnaq

43. Skathi

44. Skoll

45. Surtur

46. Suttungr

47. Tarqeq

48. Tarvos

49. Telesto

50. Tethys

51. Thrymr

52. Titan

53. Ymir


 
PROVISIONAL MOONS





1. S/2004 S7

2. S/2004 S12

3. S/2004 S13

4. S/2004 S17



5. S/2006 S1

6. S/2006 S3

7. S/2007 S2

8. S/2007 S3

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