Late in 2000, astronomers at the National Center of Scientific Research in Nice, France discovered 6 more moons orbiting Saturn. Now at 26 moons, Saturn returns as the planet with the most moons. Uranus had temporarily become the planet with the most moons with 21, after the same research team discovered 5 new moons orbiting Uranus in a study from 1997 to 1999.

Brett Gladman invented the technique of searching for moons. Gladman and seven other researchers took an image of a region of sky close to Saturn. Computer software compared the images, looking for any object that moved or changed its position among the background of fixed stars.

Using images taken by the 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory at La Silla, Chile and the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the researchers discovered 6 moons. They are temporarily named S/2000 S 1 through S/2000 S 6. The moons are small, about 6 to 30 miles across. All the moons are irregular satellites with elongated orbits that stretch several million miles from Saturn. They lie out of the plane of the planet’s equator. One orbits opposite of the planet’s spin, or in a retrograde orbit.

The researchers believe the new moons were captured into their current orbits long after the planet formed. Saturn’s larger moons all lie closer to the planet and travel in almost circular orbits along the planet’s equatorial plane. The larger moons are believed to have formed from a disk of gas and dust that surrounded Saturn as it was forming.