Download File - Astronomy @ Walton High School

Enceladus is the sixth largest moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by
William Herschel. Little was known about Enceladus until the two Voyager
spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s. Enceladus is located in
Saturn’s E Ring. In 2005, Cassini Huygens probe discovered that Enceladus
has a water-rich plume venting from Enceladus's south polar region.
Atmosphere Composition:
91% water vapour
4% nitrogen
3.2% carbon dioxide
1.7% methane Mass:
(1.08022±0.00101)×1020 kg Enceladus’s Water Plume as shown by
Cassini
Titan (or Saturn VI) is the largest moon of Saturn. It was discovered by
Christiaan Huygens .It is the only natural satellite known to have a dense
atmosphere and is the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence
of surface liquid has been found.
In 2005, the Huygens probe successfully landed on titan and relayed back
pictures of the surface under the moons massive atmosphere bigger than
earth’s.
Atmosphere Composition
98.4% Nitrogen
1.6% Methane with a small
percentage of hydrogen.
Huygens discovered that there was liquid
methane on the surface of Titan as this
picture shows.
Surface area: 8.3×107 km2
Volume: 7.16×1010 km3
Mass: (1.3452±0.0002)×1023 kg
Mimas was discovered by William Herschel in 1789. it is named after
Mimas, the son of Gaia, in Greek Mythology. It has a diameter of 369
km and is currently the 21st largest moon in the Solar System. Mimas is
the smallest astronomical body to be rounded in shape due to selfgravitation.
Mimas; surface area is slightly less than that of Spain. The low density
of this moon shows that it is mostly composed of water ice and a small
quantity of rock. As it has tidal forces acting upon it, the moon is
noticeably prolate- its longest axis is 10% longer than the shortest.
The moons most distinctive feature is a giant impact crater 81 miles
across ,called Hershel . The crater’s diameter is almost a third of the
entire moons and its walls are around 5km high.
Hyperion was the first moon found to be non-regular in 1841 by 3
different people, each discovering it within days of each other. It is the
second largest known irregular moon after Neptune’s Proetus.
The reason for it being irregular is because there isn’t enough mass to
make it regular (it is about 15% of the mass of Mimas).
Due to its low density, it is presumed to be mostly composed of water
and ice with a small amount of rock. Some scientists believe that it could
be part of another one of Saturn’s moons named Phoebe because of it
has a thin layer of dark material on the surface, much like Phoebe’s.
Temperature: −180 C
Composition: Mostly Ice water
Mass: (5.6199±0.05)×1018 kg
Second largest moon of Saturn and ninth-largest moon in the solar
system.
Discovered in 1672 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
Named after the Greek Titan Rhea, “Mother of the Gods”.
It is also designated Saturn V, being the fifth major moon from the
planet.
John Herschel named the planet after the Greek God, as with other
major planets of Saturn.
Rhea is an icy body with a low density, suggesting that it is made of
about 25% rock and 75% water ice.
Rhea's features resemble those of Dione, with dissimilar leading and
trailing hemispheres, suggesting similar composition and histories. The
temperature on Rhea is 99 K (−174 °C) in direct sunlight and between
73 K (−200 °C) and 53 K (−220 °C) in the shade.
Rhea has a rather heavily cratered surface and two massive impact
basins.