|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Image of the Day: Mystery Moon
posted: 07:00 am ET
01 July 2003
|
Untitled Document
NASA/Voyager 2
In less than a year, NASA's Cassini space probe will visit this mysterious moon Phoebe, and the pictures are bound to be better than this one. Voyager 2 took this photo of Saturn's outer satellite in 1981 from 1.36 million miles (2.2 million kilometers) away. The Moon is about 120 miles (200 kilometers) in diameter and goes around the giant planet every 550 Earth-days. Astronomers suspect Phoebe is a captured asteroid, in part because it orbits in the opposite direction of the planet's primary moons. Cassini is scheduled to explore Phoebe during a June 11, 2004 flyby, then go into orbit around Saturn on July 1. Scientists expect the craft to generate a wealth of new knowledge about Saturn and its rings and moons. In fact, the robotic probe will likely find several previously unknown small moons -- some embedded in the rings -- possibly forcing scientists to consider what really constitutes a moon. -- Robert Roy Britt Return each weekday for a new SPACE.com Image of the Day.
|
|
|
|
|
