Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Saturn's Moon Helene in Color

NASA ^ | May 02, 2012 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Although its colors may be subtle, Saturn's moon Helene is an enigma in any light. The moon was imaged in unprecedented detail last June as the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn swooped to within a single Earth diameter of the diminutive moon. Although conventional craters and hills appear, the above image also shows terrain that appears unusually smooth and streaked. Planetary astronomers are inspecting these detailed images of Helene to glean clues about the origin and evolution of the 30-km across floating iceberg. Helene is also unusual because it circles Saturn just ahead of the large moon Dione, making it one of only four known Saturnian moons to occupy a gravitational well known as a stable Lagrange point.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI; Color Composite: Daniel Machácek]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SampleMan]

I thought named moons had to be large enough to be spherical. Appears that I was wrong.

[Crazieman]

Oh how bizarre, its so smooth and featureless. This is going to cause a lot of headaches for years.

[cripplecreek]

I’m not vacuuming that.

[tophat9000]

The surface texture remind me of a semi soft piece of tar ...not solid not liquid..in between plastic state

[Conan the Librarian]

I think it was discovered long before we sent out probes to find out if they were round or not.

Wikipedia (for what that is worth) has the moon being discovered in 1980 from the ground based scope Pic du Midi in France.

So, you aren’t necessarily wrong about being spherical.

On a good night, I have seen 7 of Saturn’s Moons, but, this one is just too small.

[Conan the Librarian]

This may help too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_naming_conventions#Natural_satellites_of_planets

[martin_fierro]

making it one of only four known Saturnian moons to occupy a gravitational well known as a stable Lagrange point.

They got a lot o' nice girls.

[Fightin Whitey]

With some very fine moons!

[blueunicorn6]

I looked at this and I thought, “Wow! A brown moon!”, and then I realized I was looking at it through my whiskey glass.

[KoRn]

"On a good night, I have seen 7 of Saturn’s Moons, but, this one is just too small."

Using binoculars?

[Conan the Librarian]

I wish!

No, with my 10 inch Newt. In my youth, my 6 and 8 inch newts would work, but, my eyes aren’t what they use to be.