New discovery: Saturn has highest number of moons in our solar system

After the discovery of 20 new moons, planet Saturn now has 82 moons. With this discovery, Saturn has the highest number of moons in our solar system and has overthrown Jupiter (with 79 moons) to the second position in this race.

The new moons have been discovered by Scott Sheppard and his team from Carnegie Institute of Science using a telescope in Hawaii. The new moons are pretty small, around 3 miles in diameter. Out of 20 moons, 17 moons encircle the planet in retrograde direction, while the other three moons orbit the planet in the direction of its rotation.

According to the researchers, there are around hundred more tiny moons revolving around this ?Ringed? planet.? The distance between earth and Saturn makes the discovery of moons more laborious. These moons are thought to be the remnants of the bigger moons of Saturn.

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Saturn is the second largest planet and the sixth planet from the Sun in our solar system.It was first observed through a telescope by Galileo in 1610.Titan, Tethys, Enceladus, and Rhea are some of its major moons. Cassini Huygens, a joint space mission of European Space Agency (ESA) and National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), launched in 1997, studies the moons of Saturn.