Saturn's sixtieth moon discovered

BBC ^ | July 21, 2007 (Saturday).

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The new moon could be related to Methone and Pallene

A new moon has been discovered orbiting Saturn - bringing the planet's latest moon tally up to 60.

The body was spotted in a series of images taken by cameras onboard the Cassini spacecraft.

Initial calculations suggest the moon is about 2km-wide (1.2 miles) and its orbit sits between those of two other Saturnian moons, Methone and Pallene.

The Cassini Imaging Team, who found the object, said Saturn's moon count could rise further still.

New family

The moon appears as a dim speck in images taken by the Cassini probe's wide-angle camera on 30 May 2007.

The Saturnian system continues to amaze and intrigue us with many hidden treasures being discovered the more closely we look Professor Carl Murray

Professor Carl Murray, a Cassini Imaging Team scientist from Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL), said: "After initially detecting this extremely faint object, we carried out an exhaustive search of all Cassini images to date and were able to find further detections."

It is thought, like many of Saturn's other moons, to be mostly made up of ice and rock.

The body's proximity to Methone and Pallene suggests the three satellites may constitute a family of moons.

"Naturally we are going to use Cassini's cameras to search for additional family members," added Professor Murray.

The moon, currently dubbed Frank by the scientists who discovered it, has yet to be officially named. This decision will be taken by the International Astronomical Union.

Professor Murray said: "The Saturnian system continues to amaze and intrigue us with many hidden treasures being discovered the more closely we look."

'Epic journey'

The Cassini-Huygens mission, a collaboration between the US space agency (Nasa), the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), set off on its mission to explore Saturnian system in 1997.

The Cassini space probe arrived at its destination in 2004, while the Huygens probe, initially carried onboard Cassini, landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in 2005.

Professor Keith Mason, chief executive of the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), said: "It is amazing to think that when Cassini embarked upon its epic journey to Saturn in 1997, we only knew about 18 of its moons.

"Since then, through observations from ground based telescopes and the Cassini spacecraft, a further 42 have been identified."

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

At the time of posting, the title of the article on the BBC website was: “Saturn’s sixtieth moon discovered” .

[martin_fierro]

It's not a moon, it's a very tiny planet.

(ducking)

< |:)~

[SunkenCiv]

You, sir, would be slapworthy if you weren’t so darned humorous. ;’) But now I’ve got ‘tude and refuse to ping the X-Planets lists, just to spite you. :’D

I should look around for the link to the Jupiter’s moons topic, or maybe it wasn’t a topic, maybe just a post, or perhaps I just imagined the whole thing...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1234919/posts?page=4#4
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1607979/posts?page=19#19
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1607979/posts?page=46#46
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1607979/posts?page=111#111
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1607979/posts?page=137#137
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1607979/posts?page=151#151
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1685682/posts?page=15#15
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1856930/posts?page=3#3

[Lurker]

Doesn't Saturn have like billions of moons?

L

[SunkenCiv]

Two More Moons for Jupiter Make 60
April 14, 2003
Scott S. Sheppard

In past few weeks nearly a dozen new planetary moons have been discovered -- two of which were certified by the International Astronomical Union on April 12th and 14th. The latest pair, dubbed S/2003 J19 and S/2003 J20, were located using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. J19 was spotted by a four-member group led by Brett Gladman (University of British Columbia); J20 was identified by Scott S. Sheppard and David C. Jewitt (University of Hawaii), along with Jan Klenya (Cambridge University).

[SunkenCiv]

You’re thinking of Uranus.

;’)

Hey, someone was gonna say it.

[SunkenCiv]

Moon size comparison:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1097532/posts?page=97#97

[SunkenCiv]

Hints of Unseen Moons in Saturn’s Rings
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 16 November 2004 06:25 am ET
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/saturn_update_041116.html

[SunkenCiv]

Twelve More Moons Around Saturn Act In Strange Ways
by Lori Stiles
2001

The 12 newfound moons are in irregular orbits that suggest they are the collisional remnants of larger parent moons, once securely captured in, but later blasted from, their saturnian orbits... The 12 new-found satellites are irregular -- meaning they orbit outside the plane of Saturn's equator -- and it appears that their orbits cluster in three, possibly four, distinct groups, said Carl W. Hergenrother of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL)... Astronomers in 1997 and 1999 discovered five irregular satellites around Uranus, and in 1999-2000 discovered another 12 irregular satellites around Jupiter, previously known to have eight... The most probable theory is that each cluster is the remains of a once-intact moon smashed by a collision sometime after the planets were formed, according to their analysis... Saturn must have captured the original parent moons during planetary formation, as the objects passed through Saturn's surrounding proto-planetary gas cloud, Hergenrother said... An alternative theory is that the moons were captured when Saturn suddenly increased in mass -- in which case the moons would all be prograde, moving around the planet in the same direction as the planet moves around the sun... "But we are seeing just as many retrograde as prograde irregular moons as Saturn," Hergenrother said. Objects captured as moons would move in either prograde or retograde orbits depending on their direction as they passed through and were slowed by proto-Saturn's gas cloud.

[SunkenCiv]

Saturn's Rings: Formation
Adler Planetarium

The prevailing theory as to how Saturn's rings were formed comes from the 19th century astronomer Edouard Roche. Roche predicted that if an object such as a moon were to come too close to a large planet such as Saturn, eventually it would be torn apart by tidal forces - the uneven gravitational pull upon an object due to its size.

Under a tidal force, an object experiences a greater gravitational pull on its nearer side than its farther side. If the difference in force is great enough, this can cause a strain which literally breaks an object apart. Scientists now call this limit where an object will be torn apart by tidal forces the Roche Limit.

Saturn's rings may be young
by William R. Corliss
May-Jun 1985

When the Voyager spacecraft swept past Saturn, they radioed back photos of a complex, very dynamic system of rings -- thousands of rings. Studies of these rings have led some astronomers to wonder if they are really as old as Saturn itself. Two lines of thinking suggest a recent origin:

(1) The rings are composed of both light material (very likely water ice) and dark material (probably rocks and dust). The rocky fragments, according to the prevailing nebular theory, should have condensed early in solar-system history, and then been swept gravitationally into the planet as they were slowed by friction with the uncondensed nebular material. Yet, dark material is still in the rings. (2) The incessant bombardment of the rings by meteorites should have pulverized the rings, sending fragments and vaporized material in all directions. In just 10 million years the rings should have been largely erased. They are still there.

(Cuzzi, Jeffrey N.; "Ringed Planets: Still Mysterious -- II," Sky and Telescope, 69:19, 1985.)

[counterpunch]

The Devil planted that moon to make us question our faith!

[SunkenCiv]

Is a New Moon News?
by David Tytell
Sky & Telescope

Here's a question a few of us have been wondering: when do discoveries stop becoming news? We once dutifully reported every extrasolar planet discovery as it was made. After all, finding worlds beyond our solar system is the stuff of science-fiction dreams. But then the number of exoplanets crossed 50, then 100, then 200, and is now at 246. A similar argument can be made for Martian and lunar meteorites. At some point — who knows exactly when — they stopped becoming "news."

Now NASA is reporting that Cassini spotted another moon around Saturn. That brings Saturn's family of satellites to 60. It currently has a temporary designation, S/2007 S4, but it will most likely earn one of those hard-to-pronounce names that all the new Saturnian satellites receive. If you want to see it move, NASA posted a cool animation showing the discovery.

The find, located inside the ring plane, doesn't place Saturn higher in the standings; Jupiter is still king with 63 satellites. But I suspect that won't last for long. Cassini is on patrol and there isn't a spacecraft in the hunt around Jupiter.