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Saturn's "new moon." Very unlikely



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 16th 14, 11:22 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
RichA[_1_]
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Posts: 553
Default Saturn's "new moon." Very unlikely

You'll notice that while there may be localized clumping the rings, there is not going to be a evolution of any new moons around Saturn. Saturn's moons were formed when the planet was formed and they aren't in the rings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27056698

  #2  
Old April 16th 14, 11:34 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Mike Collins[_4_]
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Default Saturn's "new moon." Very unlikely

RichA wrote:
You'll notice that while there may be localized clumping the rings, there
is not going to be a evolution of any new moons around Saturn. Saturn's
moons were formed when the planet was formed and they aren't in the rings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27056698



From Wikipedia


Ring moonlets[edit]
Main article: Rings of Saturn


Daphnis in the Keeler gap
During late July 2009, a moonlet was discovered in the B Ring,[3] 480 km
from the outer edge of the ring, by the shadow it cast. It is estimated to
be 300 m in diameter. Unlike the A Ring moonlets (see below), it does not
induce a 'propeller' feature, probably due to the density of the B
Ring.[36]



Possible beginning of a new moon of planet Saturn (April 15, 2014).
In 2006, four tiny moonlets were found in Cassini images of the A Ring.[37]
Before this discovery only two larger moons had been known within gaps in
the A Ring: Pan and Daphnis. These are large enough to clear continuous
gaps in the ring.[37] In contrast, a moonlet is only massive enough to
clear two small—about 10 km across—partial gaps in the immediate vicinity
of the moonlet itself creating a structure shaped like an airplane
propeller.[38] The moonlets themselves are tiny, ranging from about 40 to
500 meters in diameter, and are too small to be seen directly.[8] In 2007,
the discovery of 150 more moonlets revealed that they (with the exception
of two that have been seen outside the Encke gap) are confined to three
narrow bands in the A Ring between 126,750 and 132,000 km from Saturn's
center. Each band is about a thousand kilometers wide, which is less than
1% the width of Saturn's rings.[8] This region is relatively free from the
disturbances related to resonances with larger satellites,[8] although
other areas of the A Ring without disturbances are apparently free of
moonlets. The moonlets were probably formed from the breakup of a larger
satellite.[38] It is estimated that the A Ring contains 7,000–8,000
propellers larger than 0.8 km in size and millions larger than 0.25 km.[8]

Similar moonlets may reside in the F Ring.[8] There, "jets" of material may
be due to collisions, initiated by perturbations from the nearby small moon
Prometheus, of these moonlets with the core of the F Ring. One of the
largest F-Ring moonlets may be the as-yet unconfirmed object S/2004 S 6.
The F Ring also contains transient "fans" which are thought to result from
even smaller moonlets, about 1 km in diameter, orbiting near the F Ring
core.[39]

One of the recently discovered moons, Aegaeon, resides within the bright
arc of G Ring and is trapped in the 7:6 mean motion resonance with
Mimas.[21] This means that it makes exactly seven revolutions around Saturn
while Mimas makes exactly six. The moon is the largest among the population
of bodies that are sources of dust in this ring.[40]

In April 2014, NASA scientists reported the possible beginning of a new
moon, within the A Ring, of the planet Saturn.[22] (related image)
 




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