Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The size(s) of Saturn's family

Aaturn and moonsThis stunner from June shows the diversity of the Saturnian system: (over- exposed) planet on the the far right, rings, and three very different moons - Titan, Saturn's largest (second only to Jupiter's Ganymede, discoveredy by the astronomer Huygens) at upper left, middle-sized Dione (discovered by the astronomer Cassini) at right and smaller Janus ("discovered" by a number of people in the 1960s and identified as a co-orbiter with Epimetheus in 1978, a weirdness confirmed by Voyager) just above the rings left of center. Some of the tiny moons are there, but too small to be seen at this range.

Check the Cassini-Huygens site for details

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