Pan; a weirder moon of Saturn

[KUSA]

I'm still waiting for a planet with beautiful naked amazon goddesses!
I'll do my bit for humanity and sacrifice myself on a one way trip...
(With a boner all the way!)

After that one way trip, you find out that they are all chicks with dicks.

[Iroscato]

There is an entire category of common planets seen in the galaxy but not represented in our solar system, the so called 'super earths' and/or 'sub Neptunes'. Planets bigger than earth, and smaller than Neptune are turning up frequently in surveys of other stars, yet we have no local example at all.

Well...they're currently searching for the ninth planet in our solar system and have been zeroing in on its location for years now...it's estimated to be a rocky world with a diameter close to that of Neptune O_o

(And apparently takes about 15,000 years to orbit the sun...)

[vorlon13]

Another moon with a weird equatorial girdle accumulation, Atlas, will be imaged fairly closely early on in April.



Atlas has a thicker band as it has a slightly higher inclination as it orbits Saturn.  I read am interesting paper about the similarities and differences how the foof accumulates on Pan and Atlas.  Pan's band is more symmetrical around, Atlas's less so.  Pan is fairly well centered between the ring edge inside and outside its orbit which makes for an evener deposition, Atlas is closer to one than the other, so it's buildup is greater on one hemisphere.

The 'foof' is expected to be in the micron to meter sized chunks.  Cassini won't get close enough to resolve anything accreting.

As the material has accumulated on Pan it has 'dampened' out it's orbital eccentricity to a very low value.  Atlas is perturbed significantly by another little moon, Prometheus, so it's orbit doesn't 'relax' to a similar degree.  This affects how and where the material drifts on to it's surface differently from Pan.  One gathers more on the Saturn facing and opposite side, the other more on the leading hemisphere and trailing.

Wild how they are so similar, yet also revealingly different.

[vorlon13]

{nevermind, pic won't load}

[Pat Mustard]

And here is a context image showing how Pan is amongst the rings of Saturn.  The buildup of 'foof' along the equator is from ring residue gently accumulating on Pan and following the intricate gravity gradient(s) as it does so.

Additionally, the cracks are apparently actual cracks.  Pan is large enough, weak enough, and close enough to Saturn it is showing some fractures from the intense tidal effects of Saturn.  Similar cracks have been seen (and finally understood) on Phobos. 

Is there any reason why the photos aren't coming up in Vorlon's post? I copied the links directly into firefox and they are valid.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I had to open those pics in their own windows ... I'm using Chrome.

Great pics and interesting backstory.

[vorlon13]

And let's not forget Daphnis:

[LastPoet]

Aliens.