The Great Moon Race: Saturn and Jupiter Break New Records with 15 Fresh Discoveries
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The celestial battle for the “King of Moons” title has reached a new fever pitch. As of March 2026, astronomers have officially confirmed a fresh batch of satellites orbiting our solar system’s largest gas giants, bringing the total number of known planetary moons to a staggering 442.
According to recent bulletins from the Minor Planet Center, Saturn has extended its lead with 11 new discoveries, while Jupiter has added four to its growing family.
The Current Moon Tally (March 2026)
The solar system’s “Moon Leaderboard” has shifted significantly. Here is how the planets and dwarf planets currently rank:
| Celestial Body | Moon Count |
| Saturn | 285 |
| Jupiter | 101 |
| Uranus | 28 |
| Neptune | 16 |
| Pluto | 5 |
| Mars | 2 |
| Earth | 1 |
Small, Faint, and Far Away
Don’t expect to see these new additions through a backyard telescope. These 15 new moons are tiny—averaging only about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) in diameter.
They are also incredibly faint, ranging between magnitude 25 and 27. To put that in perspective, our own Moon shines at magnitude -12.6. These new satellites are so dim and distant that it took the world’s most powerful ground-based observatories to spot them, including:
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The 6.5-meter Magellan–Baade telescope (Chile)
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The 8-meter Subaru telescope (Hawaii)
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The 3.5-meter Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (Hawaii)
The Modern “Moon Hunters”
The discoveries were spearheaded by legendary astronomers Scott Sheppard (Carnegie Institution for Science) and David Tholen (University of Hawaii), alongside Edward Ashton, who has become a prolific discoverer of Saturnian moons. Between them, these researchers have identified over 400 moons in our solar system.
Can Jupiter Catch Up?
While Saturn currently dominates the “Moon Stakes” by a wide margin, Jupiter has reinforcements on the way. Two major missions—NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE)—are currently hurtling toward the Jovian system.
When they arrive in the early 2030s, their high-resolution cameras are expected to find dozens, if not hundreds, of smaller “moonlets” that are invisible from Earth.
Safety & Technical Notes
The new discoveries were formally announced in the Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (MPEC) 2026-F09 through F14. While these objects are technically moons, they represent a class of “irregular” satellites with wide, eccentric orbits that suggest they may be captured asteroids from the early days of the solar system.
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Tags: #Astronomy #SpaceNews #Jupiter #Saturn #SolarSystem #NASA #ScienceDaily #MoonRace
