leading edge of moons?

"Astronomers have known about this dichotomy ever since Italian-French
astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini discovered Iapetus in 1672. He
correctly surmised that the moon's trailing hemisphere as it moves
around Saturn is composed of highly reflective material but that the
leading hemisphere is apparently without the glitter. That's in contrast
to the other 30 known moons of Saturn, as well as the moons of Jupiter,
all of which tend to be brighter on their leading edges."

- from the article, "Cassini eyes Iapetus": Science News, July 31,
2004; Vol. 156, No. 5, p. 77

Do all of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter present the same face
toward their planets? I had assumed (perhaps erroneously) that
Earth's moon was an oddity. Is this the standard behavior for moons
in the Solar system?

heron

--
unDO email address
___
Nature, heron stone
to be commanded,
must be obeyed. http://home.comcast.net/~heronstone/

"heron stone" wrote in message ...
"Astronomers have known about this dichotomy ever since Italian-French
astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini discovered Iapetus in 1672. He
correctly surmised that the moon's trailing hemisphere as it moves
around Saturn is composed of highly reflective material but that the
leading hemisphere is apparently without the glitter. That's in contrast
to the other 30 known moons of Saturn, as well as the moons of Jupiter,
all of which tend to be brighter on their leading edges."

- from the article, "Cassini eyes Iapetus": Science News, July 31,
2004; Vol. 156, No. 5, p. 77

Do all of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter present the same face
toward their planets? I had assumed (perhaps erroneously) that
Earth's moon was an oddity. Is this the standard behavior for moons
in the Solar system?

No and Yes.

Rick

Rick wrote:

"heron stone" wrote in message ...

"Astronomers have known about this dichotomy ever since Italian-French
astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini discovered Iapetus in 1672. He
correctly surmised that the moon's trailing hemisphere as it moves
around Saturn is composed of highly reflective material but that the
leading hemisphere is apparently without the glitter. That's in contrast
to the other 30 known moons of Saturn, as well as the moons of Jupiter,
all of which tend to be brighter on their leading edges."

- from the article, "Cassini eyes Iapetus": Science News, July 31,
2004; Vol. 156, No. 5, p. 77

Do all of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter present the same face
toward their planets? I had assumed (perhaps erroneously) that
Earth's moon was an oddity. Is this the standard behavior for moons
in the Solar system?


No and Yes.

Rick

Some moons are in fact planet really, but just captured by much larger
planets themselves. Opinions anyone?

"Rick" wrote in :

"heron stone" wrote in message
...
"Astronomers have known about this dichotomy ever since
Italian-French astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini discovered Iapetus
in 1672. He correctly surmised that the moon's trailing hemisphere as
it moves around Saturn is composed of highly reflective material but
that the leading hemisphere is apparently without the glitter. That's
in contrast to the other 30 known moons of Saturn, as well as the
moons of Jupiter, all of which tend to be brighter on their leading
edges."

- from the article, "Cassini eyes Iapetus": Science News, July
31,
2004; Vol. 156, No. 5, p. 77

Do all of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter present the same face
toward their planets? I had assumed (perhaps erroneously) that
Earth's moon was an oddity. Is this the standard behavior for moons
in the Solar system?

No and Yes.

Really? Which satellites (moons) in our solar system are not tidally
locked to their planets?

"Paul Lawler" wrote in message
. 125.202...

Really? Which satellites (moons) in our solar system are not tidally
locked to their planets?

Hyperion + Saturn

"A.Gent" wrote in message u...

"Paul Lawler" wrote in message
. 125.202...

Really? Which satellites (moons) in our solar system are not tidally
locked to their planets?

Hyperion + Saturn

Correct. Hyperion is locked in a 3:4 orbital resonance with Titan.

Rick

In message , Rick writes
"A.Gent" wrote in message
. au...

"Paul Lawler" wrote in message
. 125.202...

Really? Which satellites (moons) in our solar system are not tidally
locked to their planets?

Hyperion + Saturn

Correct. Hyperion is locked in a 3:4 orbital resonance with Titan.


More to the point, it's got a 13 day rotation period and a 79 day orbit.
Actually, that's a Voyager result and Hyperion is known to have a
chaotic rotation. Is the period the same now?
Phoebe isn't locked either, it's got a rotation period of about 9 hours.
--
What have they got to hide? Release the full Beagle 2 report.
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

"Rick" wrote in :

"A.Gent" wrote in message
u...

"Paul Lawler" wrote in message
. 125.202...

Really? Which satellites (moons) in our solar system are not
tidally locked to their planets?

Hyperion + Saturn

Correct. Hyperion is locked in a 3:4 orbital resonance with Titan.

Wow... see what happens when you keep your eyes open... you learn things!

Thanks, guys!

Thanks everyone for your answers.

This is all news to me.

For some unknown reason, I had just assumed that Luna's
orbital behavior was an aberration of our "special" Earth.
I guess we're not all that special... good!

Well, you know what they say about assumptions...

Is there some simple generalization that can be made
about moons... that, with the exceptions of x, y, and z
all moons (over X diameter) in the Solar system present
the same face (are tidally locked) to their planets?

heron

--
unDO email address
___
Nature, heron stone
to be commanded,
must be obeyed. http://home.comcast.net/~heronstone/

"heron stone" wrote in message ...
Thanks everyone for your answers.

This is all news to me.

For some unknown reason, I had just assumed that Luna's
orbital behavior was an aberration of our "special" Earth.
I guess we're not all that special... good!

Well, you know what they say about assumptions...

Is there some simple generalization that can be made
about moons... that, with the exceptions of x, y, and z
all moons (over X diameter) in the Solar system present
the same face (are tidally locked) to their planets?

Generally, planets and their major satellites are of the same
age, and moons have had equal (i.e. enough) time to tidally
lock to their planets. Time and rate of rotation are the main
factors here -- diameter has little to do with it. Hyperion is
considered either a relatively recent knock-off from another
moon, or a recently captured KBO.

Rick