Astr110 Photography Projects, Spring 2005

Moons of Saturn , Steve Roels

This picture shows Saturn and three of the moons orbiting the planet. The rings of Saturn are not visible because the planet is over exposed in order to make the dimmer moons visible in this picture. The moons from lower left to upper right are: Rhea, Dione, and Titan. Three other moons (Mimas, Enceladus, and Tethys) are obscured by the glow of Saturn. Saturn has thirty-four total moons. Saturn's mean distance from Earth is 1,280,000,000 km.

The largest moon, Titan, is bigger than Mercury and was discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655. Titan has a mean orbital radius of 1,221,850 km and has an orbital period of 15.95 days. The moon maintains a thick nitrogen and hydrocarbon atmosphere and has a surface temperature of -178 degrees Celcius. Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system larger than Titan.

References:

Ask An Astronomer

Solar Views