Saturn's Moons

Overview

Saturn has 31 known moons. Of them, Titan is the largest, and is the second-largest in our solar system (Jupiter's Ganymede is largest). The other satellites have icy surfaces and many craters. Mimas has one crater that spans one quarter of it's diameter. Iapetus is another which is an enigma. It's surface appears to be divided into two sections. Most of the moons, which are small, were probably captured asteroids, and did not form with Saturn.

Descriptions

Pan is the closest satellite to Saturn. That is about all that we know about it.

Next comes Atlas. Atlas serves a very important function: Its orbit is at the edge of Saturn's A-ring, and Atlas keeps the A-ring in place, so the particles cannot go beyond its orbit.

Next out are Prometheus (right) and Pandora. Prometheus and Pandora serve a joint purpose which is not unlike Atlas: Prometheus guards the inside of the F-ring, while Pandora guards the outside.

Next come Epimetheus (left) and Janus (right). Scientists think that these two moons were once part of a single moon that was later blasted apart. This claim is supported by the fact that their orbits are within thirty miles of each other.

Next comes Mimas. This is a unique moon because it has a huge crater that covers fully one quarter of its entire surface.

Next out are Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Helene, Dione, and Rhea (right). Dione looks very much like our moon, except that it contains ice. Tethys, Telesto, and Calypso all share the same orbit.

Titan (left) is the second-largest moon in the solar system. It is also one of the only three that have an atmosphere (Jupiter's Io and Neptune's Triton are the other two). Out of the other two, Titan certainly has the thickest. In fact, its clouds are so thick that the moon is like Venus; it is impossible to see the ground. Therefore, we know very little about this moon, except it has a thick orange cloud-cover, and an atmosphere thicker than Earth's.

The next three moons are Hyperion, Iapetus, and Phoebe. Hyperion looks like a hamburger, and has a crater that covers one third of its bottom side. Iapetus has one side that reflects light, but the other side is covered in a pitch-dark material.

The other 13 moons all orbit outside of Iapetus' orbit, but a few are inside of Phoebe's. They were discovered in 2000 by a team of astronomers who were examining old photographs of Saturn and the area around Saturn. They are tiny, and some orbit retrograde, meaning that they orbit in the direction opposite the planet's spin - an almost certain indication that they are captured asteroids rather than being native to the system. They are currently being called S/2000 S#, with the # ranging from 1 to 12, and S/2003 S1. They will eventually be given names by the International Astronomical Union, the only official naming group.

Data for Saturn's Moons

*This indicates that the moon orbits in a retrograde - the opposite direction to the planet's spin - motion.