Which is the only planet in our solar system that has an indeterminate number of moons?

The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets less than 1 kilometer across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has 62 moons with confirmed orbits, 53 of which have names and only 13 of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers. The rings of Saturn are made up of objects ranging in size from microscopic to moonlets hundreds of meters across, each in its own orbit around Saturn. Thus a precise number of Saturnian moons cannot be given, because there is no objective boundary between the countless small anonymous objects that form Saturn's ring system and the larger objects that have been named as moons.

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49 Comments

Eric Brown

Wrong JUPITER is the CORRECT ANSWER. Jupiter's massive gravitational force is always capturing and destroying moons so it's number of moon's is always changing therefore making it having an indeterminate number of moons. The number of Saturn's moons is far more stable plus counting the larger pieces of debris in Saturn's rings as moon's is just plain sloppy work.

Samuel Anhalt

Voyager 2 visited the Uranian system in 1986 and found an additional 10, all just 16 to 96 miles (26-154 km) in diameter — Juliet, Puck, Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Desdemona, Portia, Rosalind, Cressida and Belinda — and each roughly made half of water ice and half of rock. Since then, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories have raised the total to 27 known moons, and spotting these was tricky — they are as little as 8 to 10 miles (12 to 16 km) across, blacker than asphalt, and nearly 3 billion miles (4.8 billion km) away. Between Cordelia, Ophelia and Miranda is a swarm of eight small satellites crowded together so tightly that astronomers don't yet understand how the little moons have managed to avoid crashing into each other. Anomalies in Uranus' rings lead scientists suspect there might still be more moons, closer to Uranus than any known.

earlepg

I chose Saturn because last week I saw a tv program about the solar system which discussed Saturn. The narrator mentioned that the precise number of moons was impossible to determin Also, I fairly recently saw on the same program, a discussion on Jupiter and remember a similar statement being made. Consequently, because of two correct answers, I'm reporting this question.

anne marie ohff

WRONG . The answer is Jupiter!

paula brunell

I said Jupiter as well.

kamaker

Just made sense due to the objects in the many rings

Geraldine Tettemer

Jupiter has 67 moons, Saturn has 62

mybabygirl

sharirenee, first , I think it's a girl , second we learn from what we read above , and under the question..... 3 RD , I dont comment such as , got it , missed it , or any other useless comment.. Telsa just writes what everyone just read , hence , we don't learn CRAP from her .......

mybabygirl

sharirenee, sharirenee, ooh, dry up !

Mark Herman Ringel

Saturn has 62 moons

Jan Taylor

Got it

Peter Robertson

I said Saturn(because of the rings) and guess what-they said I was right so I'm sticking to it?????

Eileen Dunn

I said Jupiter.I can see by other comments,that I’m not the only one.

mikewkirby

Sounds like Jupiter and Saturn both qualify.

Dr. Bhoomz

I believe Jupiter have a continuous number of moons somewhere between 67 to 103 at times. Science is still debating whether Jupiter is in our solar system.

Michael Baker

I am sure this question is a repeat. Last time I put Saturn and was wrong with the correct answer being Jupiter. So this time I put Jupiter and now it says Saturn is the right answer