Saturns Moons

BY SNEHA PUSAPATI

Saturns Satellites

A total of 62 moons orbit around

Saturn.

They vary in size, shape,

composition, and distance
from Saturn.

Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys,

and Enceladus are the largest of
Saturns moons and the better
known

30 moons are still unamed

Origin of the Moons

Most of Saturns moons were formed very early on in the formation of the
solar system.

They formed from the same planetary nebula of gas and dust around the sun
that led to the formation of other planets.

Rings and moons of Saturn are more than likely 4 billion years old

Studying the composition of Saturns moons helps us understand the

evolution of our entire solar system.

Saturns smaller moons appear to be the remains of a larger icy body which
have accreted more debris from the disc around Saturn.

Giant impacts of other satellites combined with accretion are thought to

have formed Saturns larger moons such as Titan.

Icy ring material forms clumps which accumulate more debris and grow in size
until gravity allows moonlet to approach a planet without being destroyed by
the planets own gravity. Moons would then continue to grow and Saturns
gravitational tide would push them farther outwards.

Titan

Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan in 1655

Rotation period of 16 days is synchronous to

Saturn, meaning the same side always faces
Saturn

Titans atmosphere is composed of Nitrogen,

methane, traces of ammonia, argon, and
ethane

The planet itself is mainly composed of water

ice and rocky materials with liquid
hydrocarbon in its polar regions

It is the second largest moon in our system

next to Ganymede

Titans large size and strong gravitational pull

affect the orbits of nearby planets, pulling
them slightly towards itself

Titan is the only body in our solar system,

other than earth, which seems to have
stable bodies of surface liquid

Life on Titan?
Yay

Methane is always present even

when sunlight destroys it to form
organic compounds, so where
does it come from?
Thick, smoggy atmosphere similar
to earths

Conditions on Saturn are very

similar to earth before oxygen was
pumped into our atmosphere

When our sun pushes the solar

systems habitable zone outward

Nay

Titan is far too cold for liquid water

to exist

Possible methane oceans under

the surface

Titans lakes are far too salty,

comparable to the Earths Dead
Sea, to sustain organisms

Mimas

Discovered by William Herschel

Closest major moon to Saturn

A giant crater covering a significant

fraction of Mimas surface makes it
resemble The Death Star.

Mimas orbit appears to wobble

due to the strong gravitational pull
of other moons near it as well as
Saturns.

Rhea

Iapetus

(False Color)

Third largest moon, 1,456 km diameter

Two- toned coloration, leading with a
darker reddish-brown side and tailing
with a far brighter side
The darker side of Iapetus seems to
have organic compounds and
seemed to have accumulated
through accretion of material that
takes longer to freeze.

Second largest moon, 1,529km diameter

Icy body similar to Dione, composed of
water ice
Heavily cratered with largest crater being
225 km in diameter
Wispy lines seem to be fractures which
indicate Rhea has gone through phases of
expansion and contraction

Tethys

Tethys measures 1066 km across and

orbits 295,000 km above the center
of Saturn

Composed mostly by water ice with

fissures on the surface from faults in
the ice

The terrain is mostly dominated by

many hills and craters larger than
40km in diameter.

Tethys is the second brightest among Saturns moons making it easier to find for
Giovanni Cassini

Shares an orbit with Telesto and Calypso and is locked in an inclination resonance
with Saturns other moon, Mimas

Odysseus, a huge impact crater on Tethys, dominates the western hemisphere and is
nearly 2/5ths the diameter of the moon

Enceladus

Measures 504 km across and orbits

238,000 km from the center of Saturn
Enceladus southern pole has geysers
that pour out water ice particles which
generate a halo of fine ice around
Enceladus.
There may be vast reserves of liquid
water underneath the moons icy
surface
Appears to have fissures, plains,
corrugated terrain, and geysers.
Geysers indicate a liquid interior to
Enceladus which may be heated by a
tidal mechanism similar to Ios.
Relatively small craters in certain areas
but none in others, indicating a
resurfacing of geological events in the
recent past.

Other Moons

Most of Saturns other moons lie outside of Enceladus orbit,

therefore farther away from Saturn

Many of them have a retrograde orbit meaning their orbit is

opposite to that of the planets spin.

The retrograde orbit of many of Saturns moons shows that they are
more than likely captured asteroids that have accreted material
from the ring rather than being a native moon.

Due to the vast number of satellites, many of them have not been
named or even properly accounted for. However, the International
Astronomical Union has devised a way of identifying them.

Cassini Missions

The Cassini spacecraft was first launched in

1997 with the Huygens probe and its mission to
explore Saturns system has been extended
until 2017.

It is equipped with many instruments to study

atmosphere, composition, etc. of Saturns
satellites, rings, and the planet itself.

Cassini has been very successful and made

many discoveries. It found an icy plume
shooting out from Enceladus surface, and
investigated the complex chemistry of Titans
atmosphere.

Cassini has also had multiple flybys past Dione

and Rhea to study their history

Cassini will eventually fly between Saturn and

its rings multiple times to gather more data
about the planets properties.

Works Cited
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www.universetoday.com/15427/moons-of-saturn/>.
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<http://www.solarviews.com/eng/saturn.htm>.
"Life on Titan?" European Space Agency. 21 Dec. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.
"Our Solar System: Moons." Solar System Exploration. NASA. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.
<http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Display=Sats&Object=Saturn>.

"Rhea, Moon of Saturn." Sea and Sky. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.

<http:// www.seasky.org/solar-system/saturn-rhea.html>.
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burro.astr.cwru.edu/stu/ saturn_moons.html>.
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"Titan." About Saturn & Its Moons. NASA. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://
saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?
SciencePageID=73>.

2014.