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2 new Saturn moons discovered

The Cassini-Huygens mission has discovered two new moons around Saturn.

The new discoveries take Saturn’s total tally of natural satellites to 33.

The moons are about 3km (2 miles) and 4km (2.5 miles) across and located 194,000km (120,000 miles) and 211,000 km (131,000 miles) from Saturn’s centre.

They are provisionally named S/2004 S1 and S/2004 S2.

S/2004 S1 and S/2004 S2 were first seen by Dr Sebastien Charnoz, a colleague of Cassini imaging team member Andre Brahic at the University of Paris, France.

Moons surrounding the giant planets are not generally found where they formed because tidal forces from the planet can cause them to drift from their original locations. In drifting, they may sweep through locations where other moons disturb them, making their orbits eccentric or inclined relative to the planet’s equator. One of the new moons might have undergone such an evolution.

posted by: kyawoo at 21:08 | link | comments |
saturn, unmanned missions

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