how many satellites are there in Saturn?

Answer 1

59 and 3 unconfirmed. The 57th (S/2007 S 1) was only discovered on April 13th 2007 and the 58th and 59th (S/2007 S 2 and S/2007 S 3) on May 1st 2007.

The numbers have shot up since the advent of the Voyager missions and the Hubble Space Telescope and some books and websites are not kept up to date on this subject therefore.

The list follows: in increasing distance from the planet and length of time to complete one orbit (in earth days):

1 Pan 133,584 kilometres 0.57505 days
2 Daphnis 136,505 kms 0.59408 days
3 Atlas 137,670 kms 0.60169 days
4 Prometheus 139,380 kms 0.61299 days
? S/2004 S 6 unconfirmed
? S/2004 S 4 unconfirmed
? S/2004 S 3 unconfirmed
5 Pandora 141,720 kms 0.62850 days
6 Epimetheus 151,422 kms 0.69433 days
7 Janus 151,472 kms 0.69466 days
8 Mimas 185,404 kms 0.942422 days
9 Methone 194,440 kms 1.00957 days
10 Pallene 212,280 kms 1.15375 days

11 Enceladus 237,950 kms 1.370218 days
12 Tethys 294,619 kms 1.887802 days
12a Telesto leading Tethys trojan
12b Calypso trailing Tethys trojan
15 Dione 377,396 kms 2.736915 days
15a Helene leading Dione trojan
15b Polydeuces trailing Dione trojan
18 Rhea 527,108 kms 4.518212 days
19 Titan 1,221,930 kms 15.94542 days
20 Hyperion 1,481,010 kms 21.27661 days

21 Iapetus 3,560,820 kms 79.3215 days
22 Kiviuq 11,294,800 kms 448.16 days
23 Ijiraq 11,355,316 kms 451.77 days
24 Phoebe 12,869,700 kms 545.09 days
25 Paaliaq 15,103,400 kms 692.98 days
26 Skathi 15,672,500 kms 732.52 days
27 Albiorix 16,266,700 kms 774.58 days
28 S/2007 S 2 16,560,000 kms 792.96 days
29 Bebhionn 17,153,520 kms 838.77 days
30 Erriapo 17,236,900 kms 844.89 days

31 Skoll 17,473,800 kms 862.37 days
32 Siarnaq 17,776,600 kms 884.88 days
33 S/2007 S 1 17,910,600 kms 894.86 days
34 S/2004 S 13 18,056,300 kms 905.85 days
35 S/2006 S 4 18,065,700 kms 906.56 days
36 Hyrokkin 18,168,300 kms 914.29 days
37 S/2006 S 6 18,556,900 kms 943.78 days
38 Tarvos 18,562,800 kms 944.23 days
39 Mundilfari 18,725,800 kms 956.70 days
40 S/2006 S 1 18,930,200 kms 972.41 days

41 S/2004 S 17 19,099,200 kms 985.45 days
42 Bergelmir 19,104,000 kms 985.83 days
43 Narvi 19,395,200 kms 1008.45 days
44 Suttungr 19,579,000 kms 1022.82 days
45 Hati 19,709,300 kms 1033.05 days
46 S/2004 S 12 19,905,900 kms 1048.54 days
47 Farbauti 19,984,800 kms 1054.78 days
48 Thrymr 20,278,100 kms 1078.09 days
49 Aegir 20,482,900 kms 1094.46 days
50 S/2007 S 3 20,518,500 kms 1100 days

51 Bestla 20,570,000 kms 1101.45 days
52 S/2004 S 7 20,576,700 kms 1101.99 days
53 S/2006 S 3 21,076,300 kms 1142.37 days
54 Fenrir 21,930,644 kms 1212.53 days
55 Surtur 22,288,916 kms 1242.36 days
56 Kari 22,321,200 kms 1245.06 days
57 Ymir 22,429,673 kms 1254.15 days
58 Loge 22,984,322 kms 1300.95 days
59 Fornjot 24,504,879 kms 1432.16 days

NB Trojans are small co-orbitals that share the same orbit as the larger body at whose L4 and L5 Lagrange points they are situated

Telesto is 60 degrees ahead of Tethys and Calypso is 60 degrees behind Tethys but they are all three at the same distance from Saturn as Tethys is.

Helene is 60 degrees ahead of Dione and Polydeuces is 60 degrees behind Dione but they are all three at the same distance from Saturn as Dione is.

Answer 2

Zero, because satellites orbit *around* their planets. Seriously, though, since we started sending spacecraft there, the number of known satellites has increased to several dozen and climbing.

A planet of Saturn's mass probably has hundreds of satellites, depending on your definition. Just as Pluto was demoted to minor planet status for many good reasons, it would be impractical to count every pebble in Saturn's rings as a separate satellite, for example. Eventually there will be a more precise definition of what a satellite is as well.

Answer 3

48 confirmed moons, 14 unconfirmed (62 natural satellites).
I think here's the list of manmade planetary probes:
Pioneer 11 - 1/9/1979 - Success. Flyby, returned.
Voyager 1 - 12/11/1980 - Success. Flyby, returned.
Voyager 2 - 5/8/1981 - Success. Flyby, returned.
Cassini - 1/7/2004 - Success. Orbiter, not yet returned.
Huygens - 14/1/2005 - Success. Atmospheric and Lander, data pod returned.
5 satellites + 62 moons = 67 all together.

Answer 4

In Saturn - none.
Orbiting Saturn - 62 moons have been identified so far, including 3 discovered by the Cassini probe in April and May this year.

Answer 5

The current count is 59, the most recent 3 being found in 2007. The number is likely to go up as more are found regularly by the Cassini space probe that is currently orbiting Saturn.

Answer 6

Zero satellites "in" Saturn.

Answer 7

The true answer is billions, because the rings consist of individual moon-lets... but there are (at last count that I'm aware of) 58 moons. (Check out National Geographic a couple of months ago - nice article on Saturn.)

Answer 8

Saturn has 34 satellites

Answer 9

If you don't count what makes up the rings then 62,but as the rings are made of rock and ice making them a satellite in orbit.some are lost to space some drift back who knows.

Answer 10

Saturn has 48 named and confirmed natural satellites, although there are 14 more which remain unamed and in doubt, so total is 62.

Personally, I would go with 48.