This is an image of Helene.
NASA

Helene

Helene was discovered on February 29, 1980, by Pierre Laques and Raymond Despiau of the Pic du Midi Observatory, France, and J. Lecacheux from the Meudon Observatory, France. Their discovery was made using ground-based observations with a 1-meter telescope of Pic-du-Midi and a Lallemand electronographic camera. Lacques and Lecacheux were part of the team which confirmed the discovery a few months later when photographs of Helene were returned from the Voyager spacecraft.

Helene is the 6th farthest moon from Saturn, with a standoff distance of 377,400 km. Helene is one of the small moons, and is just 18 x 15 km (12 x 10 miles) in size. Its dimensions make Helene about the size of a medium city.

The surface features can just barely be distinguished in this image. Nevertheless, as a small moon, details about the composition and structure of the moon are unknown.

Last modified January 19, 2001 by Jennifer Bergman.

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