The moons are all similar in size, spanning about three miles across. But 17 of the 20 have a retrograde orbit of Saturn, meaning they essentially orbit backwards from the planet and other moons.
Carnegie Institute of Science astronomer Scott Sheppard and his team used the Subaru telescope in Hawaii to find the moons. Last year, Sheppard and his team located 12 new moons around Jupiter, including one with a retrograde orbit.
Two of the moons with a pro-grade orbit, or one moving in the same direction as the planet, complete a single orbit of Saturn every two years. They're closer to the planet than some of the other newly discovered moons. Other prograde and distant retrograde moons complete a single orbit every three years.
These outer moons fall into three categories, based on the angle of their orbit. The outermost group, which includes two of the pro-grade moons, has an orbit angled at 46 degrees and are named after Inuit mythology. The researchers believe all of these moons may have once been part of a larger moon that broke apart.
"This kind of grouping of outer moons is also seen around Jupiter, indicating violent collisions occurred between moons in the Saturnian system or with outside objects such as passing asteroids or comets," Sheppard said.
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