Nasa Moons Saturn

Saturn has 53 moons that have been named.

Nasa moons saturn. Planets and asteroids in our solar system orbit the sun. Saturn s moons range in size from larger than the planet mercury the giant moon titan to as small as a sports arena. A 3d model of saturn s moon enceladus an icy moon with a hidden subsurface ocean. The moons shape contribute and also collect material from saturn s rings and.

The cassini spacecraft watches a pair of saturn s moons showing the hazy orb of giant titan beyond smaller tethys. Left to right are small moons janus and pandora respectively 179 and 81 kilometers across shiny 504 kilometer diameter enceladus and mimas 396 kilometers across seen just next to rhea. Moons also known as natural satellites orbit planets and asteroids. Moons come in many shapes sizes and types.

Visit nasa space place for more kid friendly facts. Saturn also has 29 moons awaiting confirmation. If all of these moons get confirmed saturn will have 82 moons. Fifty three moons are confirmed and named and another 29 moons are awaiting confirmation of discovery and official naming.

The rings we see are made of groups of tiny ringlets that surround saturn. Overview the voyager and pioneer flybys of the 1970s and 1980s provided rough sketches of saturn s moons. There are more than 200 moons in our solar system. Saturn isn t the only planet to have rings but it definitely has the most beautiful ones.

Cut off by the right edge of the frame rhea is saturn s. It is not quite big enough to hold a round shape so it is somewhat ovoid with dimensions of 129 x 122 x 119 miles 207 x 197 x 191 kilometers respectively. And that s not counting saturn s beautiful rings. But during its many years in saturn orbit nasa s cassini spacecraft discovered previously unknown moons solved mysteries about known ones studied their interactions with the rings and uncovered new mysteries including the discovery on an ocean moon with potential ingredients for.

Less than 123 miles 198 kilometers in mean radius crater covered mimas is the smallest and innermost of saturn s major moons. Saturn has 82 moons. But during its many years in saturn orbit cassini discovered previously unknown moons solved mysteries about known ones studied their interactions with the rings and revealed how sharply different the moons are from one another. This view looks toward the saturn facing sides of titan 3 200 miles or 5 150 kilometers across and tethys 660 miles or 1 062 kilometers across.

On july 29 2011 the cassini spacecraft s narrow angle camera took this snapshot and captured 5 of saturn s moons from just above the ringplane. Nasa visualization technology applications and development vtad download options about as wide as arizona enceladus orbits saturn at a distance of 148 000 miles 238 000 kilometers between the orbits of two other moons mimas and tethys. Like jupiter saturn is mostly a ball of hydrogen and helium. They re unconfirmed because we re waiting to get more information about them.