Science and Space

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Tiny moon in Saturn's ring

Cassini spacecraft took a series of snapshots of a Saturn moon on May 1. A day later Cassini took an even closer picture of the moon that allowed scientists to estimate both its size and brightness.

The moon, identified for now as S/2005 S1, is about 7 kilometers (4 miles) across and reflects about half of the light that hits it as it orbits about 137,000 kilometers (85,000 miles) from the center of Saturn, scientists said.

The small moon is located about 250 kilometers (155 miles) inside the outer edge of Saturn’s bright main rings in an area known as the Keeler gap.

Another Saturnian moon, Pan, also orbits the planet from within its rings and scientists believe there may be many others.

posted by: kyawoo at 20:18 | link | comments |
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