![]() “And that energy can create under-ice oceans, maybe even habitable zones. “The same gravity that causes all these weird phenomena that we’re seeing on these little moons causes energy to be pumped into some of the larger ones,” says Terrile. It is probably a shepherd satellite for Saturns A-ring. Atlas, the second of Saturns known satellites, orbits near the outer edge of the A-ring and is about 40 by 20 kilometers (25 by 15 miles) in size. Understanding Pan and Atlas may be key to understanding gravity’s role in all of Saturn’s moons. Atlas, a Moon of Saturn Saturn XV - 1980S28. “It may also be some kind of gravitational tidal effect from being near all this ring material,” says Terrile. The dominant theory for how the ridges form is that because the moons’ diameters are so much larger than the ring’s thickness, they gather material along their equators as they plow through stray ring particles. The two moons are approximately the same size, but Pan is embedded within a ring, and Atlas is along the outer edge. “What is especially interesting is the extent to which the soft material seems to bury and mute any crisp-looking topographic features even on the central ‘core’ structure,” says Paul Helfenstein at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who helped plan the flyby.Īnother moon, Pan, also has an equatorial ridge, but another recent flyby showed its ridge is rough with tension cracks and craters. “It looks like it’s covered in some kind of fluffy material.” The same sheparding effect, produces Saturns thin, outermost F ring, with moons orbiting on either side of the ring, constraining the material ( Sky & Telescope Nov. “It looks more subdued than I expected,” Terrile says. Now Saturns smallest known satellite, the moon pushes material away from its orbit and is believed to cause the 200 mile-wide Encke gap. We already knew Atlas has a UFO-like ridge around its equator, but surprisingly, the new images show that ridge is smooth. “This is a really interesting kind of dynamical dance that these moons do with the ring particles.” But instead, the ring’s shape is held by two other moons, Janus and Epimetheus. Atlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas.The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Unlike every other moon in the solar system, Titan is blanketed in a dense atmosphere. Titan is among the most unique and intriguing moons in the solar system. Having a diameter of 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers), Titan is even larger than the planet Mercury. “At the time, we thought the satellite was holding out the edge of the A ring,” Terrile says. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second-largest moon in the solar system. But Atlas appears to be a shepherd moon that isn’t responsible for shepherding ring particles. ![]() Some of Saturn’s moons, called shepherd moons, use their gravity to keep the planet’s famous rings in check. ![]()
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