This picture shows the surface of Phoebe. There are many large craters on Phoebe's surface. The picture was taken by the Cassini spacecraft in 2004.
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Phoebe
Phoebe is the name of a moon of
Saturn. Phoebe is a fairly small moon. It is about 220 km
(137 miles) across. Eight of Saturn's moons are larger than Phoebe. A whole
bunch
of Saturn's moons are smaller than Phoebe.
An astronomer
named William
Henry Pickering discovered Phoebe in 1898.
The name "Phoebe" comes
from Greek mythology. In the Greek
myths, Phoebe
was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia.
She was also the
grandmother of Apollo and Artemis.
Some things about Phoebe are strange. The moon moves around Saturn in a very
odd orbit. Most of Saturn's moons are very light in color, but Phoebe is very
dark.
Why is Phoebe so strange? Many astronomers think Phoebe used to be an asteroid or Kuiper
Belt Object. They think Saturn's strong gravity captured Phoebe sometime
long ago.
Astronomers want to learn more about Phoebe. Right now, our only pictures
of Phoebe are very fuzzy. They were made by Voyager
2 in 1981. Soon we should have much better pictures! The Cassini
spacecraft will fly very close past Phoebe on June 11, 2004.
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