All of Saturn's moons vie for our attention.
土星的所有衛星都在爭相吸引我們的關注。
But several astronomers are particularly beguiled by Phoebe, a mid-sized moon discovered in 1898 and whose eccentric, backwards orbit has long marked it as irregular.
但有幾名天文學家對Phoebe格外著迷,這顆中型衛星發現于1898年,其怪異的在軌道上逆向運行長期以來一直被視為“不規則衛星”的標志。
Today, Phoebe is in good company. Over the last few decades, plenty of smaller irregular moons have been detected, often using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Hawaii's dormant Mauna Kea volcano.
如今,Phoebe不再孤單。過去幾十年間,天文學家利用夏威夷休眠火山莫納克亞山頂的加拿大-法國-夏威夷望遠鏡,發現了大量的、更小的不規則衛星。
As far as anyone can tell, "Saturn has more moons than all the other planets put together," says Brett Gladman, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia and one of several co-discoverers of the new moons.
不列顛哥倫比亞大學天文學家布雷特·格萊德曼表示:“就目前所知,土星的衛星數量比太陽系其他所有行星的衛星加起來還多。”他也是這些新衛星的共同發現者之一。
Gladman and his colleagues have been responsible for finding many of them -- and the more they've found, the more they've suspected that reams of even tinier moons were hiding in Saturn's shadows, causing them to extend their quest.
格萊德曼及其同事已發現了其中許多衛星--發現得越多,他們就越懷疑土星的暗處可能還隱藏著更多微小衛星,這促使他們不斷擴展探索范圍。
The Minor Planet Center, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a public noticeboard that lists all known small solar system objects.
位于美國馬薩諸塞州劍橋市的“小行星中心”是一個公布太陽系已知小型天體的公共公告板。

On a normal day, astronomers expect to see the discovery of a new comet or asteroid posted online.
在平日里,天文學家會在網上看到新發現的彗星或小行星。
But on March 11, to the shock of many, the MPC revealed that 128 new Saturnian moons had been identified by Gladman's team.
但3月11日,小行星中心宣布格萊德曼團隊確認了128顆新的土星衛星,讓許多人大為震驚。
"I was blown away when I found out," says Lawler. "That's a lot. It's hilarious." (It also unequivocally means that Gladman has discovered or co-discovered more moons than anyone else in human history.)
勞勒表示,“當我得知這個消息時,我簡直驚呆了。這數量太驚人了,甚至有點離譜。”(這也意味著格萊德曼已成為人類歷史上發現或共同發現衛星最多的人。)
"Not to be overlooked is the fact that Saturn is over a billion kilometers away from Earth, so it is amazing they can even be detected at all," says O'Donoghue.
“不容忽視的是,土星距離地球超過十億公里,因此這些衛星能被探測到本身就是一個奇跡。”奧多諾休評價道。
At this point, it's reasonable to wonder what the cutoff point is: When is a moon so tiny that it's not a moon at all, but just a piece of ice or rock?
此時,人們有理由想知道臨界點是什么:衛星小到什么程度就不再算衛星,而只是一塊冰或巖石?
In any event, these 128 objects have been officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union as moons.
無論如何,這128個天體已正式被國際天文學聯合會(IAU)認定為衛星。
Gladman's team now have the somewhat unusual problem of having to find names for each of them which, per convention, must be named after a figure in Gallic, Inuit or Norse mythology.
現在,格萊德曼的團隊遇到了一個不太尋常的麻煩,他們必須為每顆新衛星命名,按照慣例,這些名字必須源自高盧、因紐特或北歐神話中的形象。
Suggestions are welcome. "This is altogether too many moons. How are we supposed to name them all?" says Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at the Washington University in St. Louis not involved with the new discovery.
歡迎提出建議。未參與此次發現的圣路易斯華盛頓大學行星科學家保羅·伯恩表示,“這衛星的數量也太多了。我們該怎么給它們全部命名啊?”