Unique view of Saturn's "moons of ravioli"

The scorched space probe "Cbadini" has left spectacular images to science. Puzzle for researchers: Why are the moons of Saturn Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Pandora and Epimetheus so weird?

While most of Saturn's 62 satellites revolve around the giant planet at a great distance from the main system, the five unusual bodies of a diameter between 8 and 120 kilometers, called "moon satellites," are moving around of the second largest planet in the solar system.

Thickening at the equator

According to the report published in the journal "Science", three of the deepest Saturn moons have a rather strange form. Daphnis, Atlas and especially Pan evoke a specialty of noodles at the Italian: ravioli. While Pan and Daphnis have each crossed an orbit inside the so-called ring A, which is clearly visible from Earth, Atlas is quite at the edge of the same ring.

Pandora and Epimetheus, both richer in potatoes than ravioliförmig, circumscribe, according to the information, only a little outside the F circle more contiguous, much thinner and more dusty around Saturn. The measurements of the last phase of the mission "Cbadini" now allow to obtain more detailed information on the thickening at the equator of the three "moons to ravioli".

While in Pan, this bulge represents about 10% of the total, Daphnis only 1% and Atlas 25%. According to the Max Planck Institute for Solar Research Göttingen, in all three cases, the pearl is much smoother and less crenellated than the rest of the surface, suggesting a younger age.

No more dense than cork

This also applies to the rather flat equatorial region of the Pandora moon. Overall, the surface of the five moons appears very porous, their average densities are comparable to those of cork. All of this indicates, according to MPS, a multi-stage development process in which the Saturn rings deposited on the equator of the moons are gradually emerging.

Among these, scientists could conceal a denser core, perhaps a fragment of a larger body that once surrounded Saturn and collapsed under the effect of collisions. The measurements now published took place between April and September 2017, when "Cbadini" made a daring maneuver towards the end of his mission and dived into the area between the planet and its deepest ring.

The NASA probe then burned as expected in the atmosphere of Saturn. "Cbadini" was launched in October 1997 and joined Ring Planet in July 2004. For about 13 years, the probe then pbaded through the fascinating system of Saturn, discovering new rings and moons and revealing many secrets of the giant gas planet. .

science.ORF.at/APA/AFP

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