Cassini Finds New Saturn Moon That Makes Waves

[Lance]

Cassini Finds New Saturn Moon That Makes Waves

In a spectacular kick-off to its first season of prime ring viewing, which began last month, the Cassini spacecraft has confirmed earlier suspicions of an unseen moon hidden in a gap in Saturn's outer A ring. A new image and movie show the new moon and the waves it raises in the surrounding ring material.

[01101001]

Cassini Finds New Saturn Moon That Makes Waves

I like the animated gif (about 900 kilobytes).

[Disinfo Agent]

Wow! =D>

[tlbs101]

Did anyone else notice that the wake from that moon both trails and leads the moon?

That's very interesting.

Not only that, but the leading edge wake is on the inside ring and the trailing edge wake is on the outside ring.

I wish I was a wave physicist or hydrologist, so I might have a better understanding of the phenomenon.

[David Carroll]

Anyone care to guess what this moon will be named? I'm guessing Fauna as the last one was named Pan. Jana would also be a good choice I think as she is the consort of Janus (already one of Saturn's moons) and is the goddess of hidden and secret things..

[01101001]

Did anyone else notice that the wake from that moon both trails and leads the moon?

Makes sense to me. It's not like a motorboat going across a still lake. The ring particles in orbits smaller than the moon's are orbiting slightly faster and the particles in larger orbits are orbiting slightly slower.

I presume the wake effect is exhibited in the inner particles that have passed the moon and those outer particles that have been passed by the moon, and I haven't checked to verify that. It would be curious if it was the other way.

[Fraser]

This picture will blow your mind. It's of Prometheus tugging material from Saturn's F-ring. It will explain the wake before and after the moon.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedi...amp;type=image

[The Bad Astronomer]

Yeah, that's a great one. I was in Australia when that image came out, and we were poring over it trying to figure it out. There is a periodicity to the trail, making me wonder if the moon is tumbling, and the tides from it are what's causing the periodicity. Very weird.

[iron4]

This is the 47th moon of Saturn, isn't it?