[meteorite-list] [Fwd: [alllpl] Fwd: Latest from Cassini: Number Sixty for Saturn]

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:38:37 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <3132.71.226.60.25.1184881117.squirrel_at_timber.lpl.arizona.edu>

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [alllpl] Fwd: Latest from Cassini: Number Sixty for Saturn
From: "John Pursch" <pursch at lpl.arizona.edu>
Date: Thu, July 19, 2007 9:20 am
To: alllpl at lpl.arizona.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Carolyn Porco [mailto:cpcomments at ciclops.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 8:17 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: LATEST FROM CASSINI: NUMBER SIXTY FOR SATURN

July 19, 2007

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Cassini Imaging Team is very pleased to debut another previously
unknown moon of Saturn. This brings the total number of natural
satellites around Saturn to 60, with the total number of artificial
satellites still holding at 1!

This tiny world is found in the vicinity of two other small moons the
Imaging Team discovered in 2004 orbiting among the larger satellites of
Saturn. The trio hints at perhaps a collection of small objects in this
region, with others yet to be discovered.

Go to ....

        http://ciclops.org

... to find out more.


(Also, please find a press release that went out a moment ago on this
finding.)


Enjoy,

Carolyn Porco
Cassini Imaging Team Leader
Director/CICLOPS
Space Science Institute
Boulder, CO

=========================================================================


MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
CASSINI IMAGING CENTRAL LABORATORY FOR OPERATIONS (CICLOPS)
SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE, BOULDER, COLORADO
http://ciclops.org
media at ciclops.org

Preston Dyches (720) 974-5859
CICLOPS/Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

PRESS RELEASE: July 19, 2007

FROM DARK OBSCURITY ... A TINY NEW SATURNIAN MOON COMES TO LIGHT

Like a hawk's eyes, the high resolution cameras on NASA's Cassini
spacecraft have spotted yet another small, previously unknown moon
circling giant Saturn and one which may indicate the existence of other
small bodies in the same region.

The tiny world--presently thought to be only about 2 kilometers (1 mile)
wide--orbits at 197,700 kilometers (122,800 miles) from Saturn. Until a
name for the moon is chosen by the International Astronomical Union, the
moon has been given the provisional designation S/2007 S 4.

The moon was first spotted in Cassini images taken on May 30, 2007.
Subsequent searches through images taken by Cassini over the previous
three years turned up additional detections of the moon and helped
researchers refine their calculations of its orbital path.

S/2007 S 4 orbits Saturn between the paths of Methone and Pallene, two
small moons, about 4 kilometers (2.6 miles) wide, also discovered in
Cassini images in 2004. All three moons orbit between much larger Mimas
and Enceladus.

Moons surrounding the giant planets generally are not found where they
originally formed because tidal forces from the planet can cause them to
drift from their original locations. In drifting, they may sweep through
'resonances'--i.e., locations where other moons disturb them--and suffer
orbit-changing perturbations. The new moon, like Methone, is in such a
resonance with Mimas and appears to have undergone such an evolution.

"The fact that both Methone and S/2007 S 4 are dynamically locked with
Mimas gives us a clue about their orbital history," said Carl Murray, a
professor at Queen Mary, University of London, and the member of the
Cassini Imaging Team leading the work on the new moon. "There are
numerous examples of these resonant mechanisms between moons in the
Saturn system and they probably arise due to tides. In the case of these
two small moons, the resonance ensures that they cannot hit Mimas, at
least in the short term."

Because the orbits of all three small moons lie close together,
researchers think they may be remnants of a larger population.

"This trio of objects could be remnants of a collision or perhaps they
are the lucky survivors of a larger population of material that failed
to form a moon," said Murray. "Either way there does seem to be a family
connection. If we could get good data about their surfaces with Cassini,
we could begin to unravel some of these mysteries."

Cassini imaging scientists are already busy looking for future
opportunities to zoom in on the new moon and refine its orbit, and to
search for other companions.

"We've already identified times in the near future when we can take some
pre-planned images and re-target them to get a closer look at this new
body," said Carolyn Porco, imaging team leader and director of CICLOPS
at the Space Science Institute. "And of course we're always on the
lookout for additional moons. There are likely to be more of these very
small bodies out there, and we hope to find them."

By chance, Cassini will approach the newly discovered moon at a distance
of 11,700 kilometers (7,300 miles) at the end of December 2009, assuming
the mission is extended beyond the summer of 2008, its nominal end.
Images taken at that time could be useful for understanding the moon's
shape, composition, and history.

A movie showing S/2007 S 4 orbiting Saturn can be found at
http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard
cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team
consists of scientists from the U.S., England, France, and Germany. The
imaging operations center and team leader (Dr. C. Porco) are based at
the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

-- 
John Pursch
Support Systems Analyst, Principal
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
520-631-2200 (cell)
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/resources/computing/faq.html

Received on Thu 19 Jul 2007 05:38:37 PM PDT