Imagine if Earth suddenly got 128 new friends in the sky! That’s what just happened to Saturn, the giant ringed planet. Astronomers recently discovered 128 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing its total number of moons to a whopping 274, "  more than any other planet in our solar system.

But don’t expect to see these moons with your eyes. Most of them are very, very tiny, only a few kilometers across  and they’re really far away. Some are smaller than the size of a big city! Astronomers found them using powerful telescopes and a clever trick called “shift and stack.” They took lots of pictures, lined them up, and combined them to spot the faint little dots moving around Saturn.

These new moons are not neat and round like our Moon. Instead, they have strange orbits, tilting in different directions, and many of them even go around Saturn backwards! Scientists think they used to be bigger moons that got smashed into pieces during cosmic collisions long ago. In fact, one group of moons seems to have formed from a crash that may have happened just 100 million years ago  not too long ago in space history.

With this discovery, Saturn has officially beaten Jupiter in the “moon race.” Jupiter has about 95 moons, but Saturn is now the clear champion. And astronomers believe there may be even more tiny moons around Saturn waiting to be discovered.

So next time you look up at the night sky, think about Saturn: not just a planet with beautiful rings, but also a planet surrounded by hundreds of little moon buddies, each with its own story to tell.