Catherine Bohemier, Photo

Astronomers have discovered eleven new moons of Saturn. Most of them are small rocky bodies up to 5 kilometers in diameter. They move in retrograde orbits, meaning they rotate in the opposite direction to Saturn's rotation around its axis. Until recently, Jupiter was considered the leader in the number of moons. However, in recent years, Saturn has significantly surged ahead. This large number of moons is likely due to a relatively recent (in astronomical terms) collision of large moons. This collision produced numerous fragments, some of which eventually became individual moons. It's possible that this same event played a role in the formation of Saturn's famous rings. For comparison, 101 moons have been confirmed to date around Jupiter, 29 around Uranus, and 16 around Neptune. This makes Saturn far more numerous than all the other planets in the Solar System combined.