William Atkins
Wednesday, 04 March 2009 19:36
Science -
Space
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Astronomers with the NASA Cassini spacecraft imaging team announced that they discovered a tiny moon (S/2008 S 1) orbiting Saturn's second most outer ring. It is the 61st moon known to be orbiting the giant planet Saturn, and a huge discovery for learning more about the evolution of its ring system.
The
Cassini spacecraft took 600 days of observation to observe a faint pinpoint of light that astronomers now say is a tiny moonlet within a partial ring (arc), which is within the larger G ring of Saturn.
The
Cassini imaging team made this announcement on Tuesday, March 3, 2009, within a circular of the International Astronomical Union (
IAU).
Specifically, the announcement of its discovery was made on March 3rd by Carolyn Porco of the Cassini Imaging Science Team based on observations that took place on August 15, 2008.
The very small moon has not been given a proper name yet and is only designated as S/2008 S 1.
The tiny moon S/2008 S 1 is about one-half kilometer (one-third mile), or about 500 meters (1,800 feet), in diameter.
It orbits in a bright section of the G ring of Saturn, and orbits, on average, about 167.5 million miles (100,000 miles) away from the planet.
The G Ring, the second most-outermost ring of Saturn, is about 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) wide.
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