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Was Phoebe, Saturn’s pock-marked moon, a comet?

Saturn’s pock-marked moon Phoebe("FEE bee") could be a comet that was captured by the gravity of the ringed planet according to the scientists at German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Judging hrom Phoebe’s eccentric, retrograde orbit and unusual albedo scientists have speculated long ago that it may be a captured comet which originated in Kuiper Belt.

Analysis of Phoebe’s surface shows that it is one of the most complex Solar System objects yet studied. Scientists have identified water-ice, possible clays, iron-bearing minerals and organics such as aromatic compounds, alkanes and nitriles on the 220 km-wide moon. Clays could have formed through heating if Phoebe came close to the Sun before being captured by Saturn, forcing water-ice to react with silicates.

The observations come from Cassini’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (Vims) during a close flyby on 11 June 2004.

Phoebe was discovered by William H. Pickering in 1898.

posted by: kyawoo at 21:58 | link | comments |
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