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- 2023 - SATURN - and her many moons. Cassini spacecraft ended its mission a few months ago. Saturn left us with many more mysteries to solve. Moons that have underground oceans that could support alien life. A moon larger than the planet Mercury received an atmospheric probe, the Huygens Space Probe, that descended through its atmosphere landing in a lake bed.
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- Saturn is 9 1/2 times the size of the Earth. It is also 9 1/2 times the distance from the Sun as the Earth. It is only 70% the density of Earth, and 95 times the mass of the Earth.
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- Saturn has 11 smaller inner moons.
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- Outer moons include:
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--------------------------------------------------- kilometer radius ------- mile radius
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-------------------- Mimas -------------------------. 199 ---------------------- 124
----------------------Enceladus. ----------------------249 ---------------------- 155
----------------------Tethys.-------------------------- 530 ---------------------- 329
----------------------Dione.--------------------------- 539 ---------------------- 335
----------------------Rhea. ----------------------------764 ---------------------- 475
----------------------Hyperion. -----------------------140 ---------------------- 87
----------------------Titan.-------------------------- 2,575 ---------------------- 1600
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- Cassini spacecraft has been studying Saturn for 13 years. It ended September 15, 2017 when the spacecraft was sent to descend into Saturn’s atmosphere. Astronomers will be studying the data for years to come. Cassini left Cape Canaveral 20 years ago arriving in 2004.
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- Cassini carried 12 instruments to measure a myriad of parameters. All the instruments were attached directly to the spacecraft so the entire spacecraft had to rotate in order to point at a specific target.
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- There are some amazing videos collected by the Huygens Space Probe. See Review # 1922 to learn more about Huygens. Saturn has 62 moons to explore. See Review #1764 to learn about he many moons and the rings of Saturn. See Review #1332 to learn about the hexagon cloud occupying the North Pole. The moons include Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Hyperion, Phoebe, Prometheus, and 50 more smaller moons.
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- Prometheus is 53 miles in diameter and its orbit dips into and out of the rings. Mimas creates the largest gap in the rings.
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- The rings of dust and ice crystals contain density waves created by the Saturn’s pulsating surface. The pulsations correspond to the brightness variations at the Sun’s surface.
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- In order to measure the gravity of Saturn radio signals between Earth and the orbiting Cassini measured a slight change in radio frequency. These tiny frequency changes were used to plot the mass distribution within Saturn. The result was a determination that Saturn had a differential rotation, some layers of the planet move at different speeds.
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- Cassini turned its attention to the moons of Saturn. There are some 60 of them depending on how small of a satellite you count. The biggest satellite is Titan which is bigger than the planet Mercury. It has a hazy atmosphere that is denser than Earth’s. It produces rains of methane that flow across the icy surface and pool into lakes.
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- Smaller moons sweep up particles inside the rings. Pan and Daphnis, Janus and Epimetheus orbit inside the rings. Mid-size moons like Dione and Tethys orbit on Lagrangian points 60 degree points in identical stable orbits.
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- Phoebe was a moon discovered in 1899. It was the first moon to be photographed. It is only 130 miles in diameter, 1/60th the size of our Moon. Frozen water and frozen carbon dioxide have been discovered on the surface. What is unusual about Phoebe is it is orbiting in the opposite direction as the other moons. That suggests it is an interloper satellite that was somehow captured by Saturn’s immense gravity.
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- Iapetus was first discovered in 1671 by Giovanni Cassini himself. Iapetus is tidally locked to Saturn. Like our Moon, we only see one side as it orbits the Earth. Iapetus is 927 miles in diameter and the third largest moon. Its density is slightly more than frozen water. Rock is likely less than one-forth the planet’s composition. Iapetus has the shape of a walnut with a large ridge running 800 miles along the equator. The ridge reaches 12 miles high.
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- Rhea is Saturn ‘s second largest moon.
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- Hyperion is Saturn’s largest irregular shaped moon , 224 by 165 miles. It has a sponge like surface of low density material, Hyperion tumbles along in its orbit changing direction of its spin.
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- Enceladus reflects almost 100% of the sunlight. It is 313 miles in diameter. They believe there is on ocean beneath the surface of Enceladus. There are plumes of water vapor , hydrogen, and hydrocarbons erupting from the surface. The water erupting to the vacuum of space simultaneously boils and freezes making the landscape as white as falling snow.
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- The plumes from Enceladus were measured to be 98% water vapor and 1% hydrogen. The sub-ocean is the most likely place to search for life.
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- Dione’s surface is also covered with volcanic ice deposits. Dione too might posses a sub-surface ocean.
On September 15, 2017 Cassini ends it’s mission after 20 years since its launch from Cape Canaveral.
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- Other Reviews available:
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- 1992. Titan and Saturn mission accomplishments.
- 1842. An exoplanet like Saturn but 200 times bigger.
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- 1764. Beyond the rings of Saturn. Saturn‘s moons.
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- 1570. Cassini visits Saturn.
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- 1332. Saturn’s hexagon at the North Pole.
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- 1271. A thunderstorm on Saturn.
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- 1252. New worlds discovered with Cassini.
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- 661. Saturn, Cassini, and Huygens.
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----- 707-536-3272 ---------------- Monday, February 19, 2018 -----
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