Saturn's moon:Phoebe

Phoebe is just one of many moons on Saturn's planet.

"Phoebe is the daughter of Uranus and Gaia; grandmother of Apollo and Artemis."

"All of Saturn's moons except for Phoebe and Iapetus orbit very nearly in the plane of Saturn's equator. Phoebe's orbit is inclined almost 175° (its north pole is in the opposite direction to Saturn's).

Phoebe's eccentric, retrograde orbit and unusual albedo indicates that it may be a captured comet or Kuiper Belt object. Data from Cassini's 2004 flyby reinforces this idea with the detection of CO2 trapped within its rocks. This rules out the earlier idea that it might have been a captured asteroid. It appears that Phoebe is chemically similar to Pluto and Triton. It is probably very similar to the chemical composition of the outer solar system at the very beginning."

"Phoebe is also unusual in that it does not rotate synchronously as do all the other moons of Saturn except Hyperion."

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06064.html

 -Phoebe-

"orbit:12,952,000 km from Saturn"
"diameter:220 km"
"mass:4.0e18 kg"

 The Face of Phoebe

"Phoebe's true nature is revealed in startling clarity in this mosaic of two images taken during Cassini's flyby on June 11, 2004. The image shows evidence for the emerging view that Phoebe may be an ice-rich body coated with a thin layer of dark material. Small bright craters in the image are probably fairly young features. This phenomenon has been observed on other icy satellites, such as Ganymede at Jupiter. When impactors slammed into the surface of Phoebe, the collisions excavated fresh, bright material -- probably ice -- underlying the surface layer. Further evidence for this can be seen on some crater walls where the darker material appears to have slid downwards, exposing more light-colored material. Some areas of the image that are particularly bright - especially near lower right - are over-exposed. (Courtesy NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)"

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/phoebe.htm

Phoebe: Comet Moon of Saturn

"Was Saturn's moon, Phoebe, once a comet? Images from Cassini, taken when the spacecraft entered the neighborhood of Saturn, indicate that Phoebe may have originated in the outer solar system. Phoebe's irregular surface, retrograde orbit, unusually dark surface, assortment of large and small craters, and low average density appear consistent with the hypothesis that Phoebe was part of the Kuiper Belt of icy comets beyond Neptune before it was captured by Saturn. Visible in this image of Phoebe are craters, streaks, and layered deposits of light and dark material."

Phoebe Temperature Maps	06.23.04

Data for Phoebe

Discovered by William Pickering in 1898

Named after one of the daughters of Uranus and Gaea

Orbital size 12,950,000 km (about 800,000 miles) (four times larger than that of Iapetus)

Orbital eccentricity 16%

Orbital inclination 175 degrees (relative to Ecliptic plane)

Orbital period -550.48 days (retrograde)

Rotation period 9.4 hours

Diameter 220 km (135 miles)

Mass around a million times less than Earth

Density probably about that of water (Composition probably mostly ice and carbon compounds)

Surface gravity perhaps 1/300 of Earth's

Albedo (reflectivity) 5%

Probably captured carbonaceous asteroid or Kuiper Belt Object

http://www.cseligman.com/text/moons/phoebe040630.jpg

 Create your own educational wiki!HelpPublic, not yet premium Privacy Policy RSS