Discovery [1] [2] | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Cassini Imaging Science Team [lower-alpha 1] |
Discovery date | 21 October 2004 (date of discovery images) [4] : 223 |
Designations | |
Designation | Saturn XXXIV |
Pronunciation | /ˌpɒlɪˈdjuːsiːz/ [5] |
Named after | Πολυδεύκης Polydeykēs |
S/2004 S 5 | |
Adjectives | Polydeucean /ˌpɒlɪdjuːˈsiːən/ [6] Polydeucian /ˌpɒlɪˈdjuːsiən/ [7] |
Orbital characteristics [8] [9] : 9 | |
Epoch 1 January 2000 12:00 UT (JD 2451545.0) | |
Earliest precovery date | 2 April 2004 [10] : 695, 702 [11] : 261 |
377600 km | |
Eccentricity | 0.019 |
2.736916 d [8] | |
Average orbital speed | 10.03 km/s [12] : 2 |
Inclination | 0.2° [lower-alpha 2] |
Satellite of | Saturn |
Group | L5 Dione trojan |
Physical characteristics | |
Dimensions | 3.50 × 3.10 × 2.62 km (± 0.40 × 0.40 × 0.40 km) [13] : 7 |
Mean diameter | 3.06±0.40 km [13] : 7 |
Volume | 15 km3 [lower-alpha 3] |
Mass | ≈ 8×1012 kg (assumed; unmeasured) [lower-alpha 4] |
Mean density | ≈ 0.5 g/cm3 (assumed; unmeasured) [14] [15] : 3 [12] : 2 |
≈ 0.0002 m/s2 at longest axis to ≈ 0.0003 m/s2 at poles [lower-alpha 5] | |
≈ 0.0008 km/s at longest axis to ≈ 0.0009 km/s at poles [lower-alpha 6] | |
assumed synchronous [12] : 4 | |
Polydeuces /ˌpɒlɪˈdjuːsiːz/ , also designated Saturn XXXIV, is a small trojan moon of Saturn occupying the trailing L5 Lagrange point of Dione. It was discovered by the Cassini Imaging Science Team in images taken by the Cassini space probe on 21 October 2004. With a mean diameter of about 3 km (1.9 mi), Polydeuces is thought to have a smooth surface coated with fine, icy particles accumulated from the cryovolcanic plumes of Enceladus. In its orbit around Saturn, Polydeuces periodically drifts away from Dione's Lagrange point due to gravitational perturbations by other nearby moons of Saturn. Of the four known trojan moons of Saturn, Polydeuces exhibits the largest displacement from its Lagrange point.
Polydeuces was discovered by the Cassini Imaging Science Team [lower-alpha 1] on 24 October 2004 while routinely investigating images taken by the Cassini space probe earlier on 21 October 2004. [4] : 223 The images were visually inspected through the blink comparison technique, which revealed any potential moons that moved relative to the background stars. The discovery images consisted of four frames taken with Cassini's wide-angle camera over less than six minutes, which showed Polydeuces moving 3–6 pixels per frame. [lower-alpha 7] [4] : 223 The observed motion of Polydeuces immediately suggested that it could be orbiting Saturn at the distance of one of the large moons, Dione, possibly sharing its orbit in a co-orbital configuration. [4] : 223
By 4 November 2004, the Cassini Imaging Science Team obtained more Cassini images of Polydeuces, including two frames taken on 2 November 2004 and another two predating the discovery images by three hours. [4] : 223–226 Preliminary orbit determinations using these images confirmed that Polydeuces was a co-orbital trojan moon residing around Dione's L5 Lagrange point. [4] : 226 With the aid of ephemeris predictions from Polydeuces's newly determined orbit, the Cassini Imaging Science Team was able to identify 52 pre-discovery detections of Polydeuces in Cassini's narrow-angle camera images taken between 9 April 2004 and 9 May 2004. [4] : 226 The International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the discovery of Polydeuces on 8 November 2004. [16] Besides Polydeuces, Cassini has discovered five other objects orbiting Saturn in 2004: Methone, Pallene, S/2004 S 3, S/2004 S 4, and S/2004 S 6. [17] : 1226–1227
After the discovery announcement, Cassini was retasked to begin targeted observations of Polydeuces in January 2005 to better determine its orbit. [4] : 226 In 2006, researchers found even earlier Cassini pre-discovery images of Polydeuces taken on 2 April 2004. [10] : 695, 702
The name Polydeuces was approved and announced by the IAU Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature on 21 January 2005. [18] In Greek mythology, Polydeuces is another name for Pollux, who is the twin brother of Castor and the son of Zeus and Leda. [2] Polydeuces is also known by its official Roman numeral designation Saturn XXXIV (34th moon of Saturn discovered) and was previously known by its provisional designation S/2004 S 5, which was given by the IAU when it announced the moon's discovery. [16] [18]
Polydeuces is an inner moon of Saturn in a co-orbital configuration with Dione, meaning they share the same orbit. [11] : 261 [19] : 2 Together with Dione and its other co-orbital companion Helene, Polydeuces orbits Saturn in 2.74 days at an average distance of 377,600 km (234,600 mi) from the planet's center, between the orbits of Tethys and Rhea. [8] Due to gravitational perturbations by other nearby moons of Saturn, Polydeuces's orbital radius can vary by ±7,660 km (4,760 mi) over time. [4] : 232 Its orbit is closely aligned with Saturn's equatorial plane with a low orbital inclination of 0.2°. [lower-alpha 2]
Polydeuces has a slightly elliptical orbit with an eccentricity of 0.019, which is unusually higher than Dione's eccentricity of 0.002. While Dione's eccentricity is known to result from its 1:2 mean-motion orbital resonance with Enceladus, the effects of this resonance are too weak to explain Polydeuces's relatively high eccentricity. [4] : 233 One possible explanation is that Polydeuces always had an eccentric orbit since its formation because its orbit did not change much over billions of years. [4] : 233
Polydeuces resides around Dione's L5 Lagrange point trailing 60° behind Dione in its orbit, which makes Polydeuces a trojan moon of Dione. The Lagrange points are locations where the gravitational pulls of Dione and Saturn balance out, allowing for stable co-orbital configurations in Dione's trojans. [20] Dione's other co-orbital moon, Helene, is a trojan residing around the L4 Lagrange point leading 60° ahead of Dione. Trojan moons are not unique to Dione; another large moon of Saturn, Tethys, also has two trojans, named Telesto and Calypso, which reside in its L4 and L5 Lagrange points, respectively. [4]
Because of perturbations by other moons of Saturn, Polydeuces does not stay exactly 60° behind Dione; its angular distance from Dione oscillates or librates over time. [4] : 231 Of Saturn's four known trojan moons, Polydeuces librates the farthest from its Lagrange point: its angular distance behind Dione oscillates from 33.9° to 91.4° with a period of 790.931 days (2.17 years). [10] : 702 [lower-alpha 8] In a rotating reference frame with respect to Dione's orbit, Polydeuces appears to travel in a looping path around Dione's L5 point due to its varying relative speed and radial distance from Saturn in its perturbed eccentric orbit. [4] : 231–232 Polydeuces's apparent looping motion combined with its librating angular distance from Dione forms a tadpole orbit about Dione's L5 point. [4] : 231
Polydeuces is thought to have formed by accreting out of leftover debris trapped in Dione's L5 Lagrange point, in a similar process experienced by Saturn's other trojan moons. This process likely took place at an intermediate stage of the formation of Saturn's moons, when Tethys and Dione have not finished forming and gases have become depleted in Saturn's circumplanetary disk. [21] : 2133 [12] : 4 Mean-motion orbital resonances by other nearby moons did not appear to play a significant role in the formation of the trojan moons. [21] : 2139
Dynamical modeling of the trojan moons' formation suggests that Tethys's and Dione's L4 and L5 Lagrange points should have started with similar amounts of material for trojan moons to form with roughly similar sizes. [21] : 2136 However, this is not the case for Dione's trojans, Helene and Polydeuces, whose masses significantly differ by more than an order of magnitude. As of yet, this mass asymmetry in Dione's L4 and L5 trojans remains unexplained. [21] : 2139
As of 2020 [update] , the most recent estimate for Polydeuces's dimensions is 3.50 km × 3.10 km × 2.62 km (2.17 mi × 1.93 mi × 1.63 mi), based on resolved Cassini imagery of the moon from 2015. [13] : 7, 30 These dimensions correspond to a volume-equivalent mean diameter of 3.06 km (1.90 mi) for Polydeuces. [13] : 7 Cassini's highest-resolution images of Polydeuces from 2015 show that it has an elongated shape, with a relatively smooth limb deviating from a simple ellipsoid. [13] : 30 Polydeuces presumably rotates synchronously with its orbital period, similar to the rest of Saturn's trojan moons. [12] : 4
Little is known about Polydeuces's other physical properties because it was never approached up close by Cassini or any other space mission to Saturn. [19] : 3 Because of its very small size, Polydeuces's gravitational perturbations on the trajectory of Cassini spacecraft and other Saturnian moons are negligible, which prevents the measurement of the moon's mass and density. [9] : 5 In spite of this, researchers assume that Polydeuces has a density similar to those of Saturn's small inner moons, whose average density is 0.5 g/cm3, [14] [15] : 3 [12] : 2 [19] : 2
Polydeuces's small size makes it prone to disruption by impact events. Depending on the size-frequency of impactors in the Saturnian system, Polydeuces is predicted to have suffered at least one disruptive impact in the last one billion years. [12] : 11 This implies that Polydeuces is either very young with an age of less than one billion years, or it is a primordial moon that has consistently reaccreted from each disruptive impact over the Saturnian system's 4.5 billion-year lifespan. [12] : 13
Polydeuces has a bright and likely smooth surface due to the accumulation of fine water ice particles from the surrounding E Ring, which is generated by the cryovolcanic plumes of Enceladus. [22] [12] : 11 Because of its small size, any craters on Polydeuces would be completely buried in E Ring material, giving it a craterless appearance resembling Methone or Pallene. [22] [12] : 11 Its geometric albedo is unknown since it has never been observed at low phase angles. [13] : 10, 30 Cassini imagery shows that Polydeuces has a uniform surface brightness across its leading and trailing hemispheres. [13] : 23 Its surface is about as bright as Dione's but darker than Helene's. [13] : 23 The trojan moons of Tethys exhibit a similar difference in surface brightness, where Calypso is brighter than Telesto and Tethys. [13] : 23 The reason for these brightness asymmetries in the trojan moons of Dione and Tethys remains unknown; possible explanations include an asymmetric distribution of E Ring particles or recent impacts that brightened Helene and Calypso. [13] : 27–28
Cassini is the only space mission to Saturn that has made targeted observations of Polydeuces. [4] Over the 13-year span of Cassini's mission in orbit around Saturn, the spacecraft has made 22 close approaches within 130,000 km (81,000 mi) of Polydeuces. [23] Cassini's closest encounter with Polydeuces took place on 17 February 2005, when it passed 6,446.7 km (4,005.8 mi) from Polydeuces while moving outbound from periapse. [23] However, Cassini did not take any images of Polydeuces on that date. [24] The only encounters where Cassini has taken resolved images of Polydeuces were on 22 May 2006, 10 May 2015, and 16 June 2015, at closest approach distances of 64,089.9 km (39,823.6 mi), 33,997.8 km (21,125.3 mi), and 34,794.3 km (21,620.2 mi), respectively. [23] [13] : 31 [lower-alpha 9] Cassini's two close encounters in 2015 provided the first images where Polydeuces was larger than 10 pixels across. [13] : 30
In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the gravitational influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of the restricted three-body problem.
Telesto is a moon of Saturn. It was discovered by Smith, Reitsema, Larson and Fountain in 1980 from ground-based observations, and was provisionally designated S/1980 S 13. In the following months, several other apparitions were observed: S/1980 S 24, S/1980 S 33, and S/1981 S 1.
Atlas is an inner satellite of Saturn which was discovered by Richard Terrile in 1980 from Voyager photos and was designated S/1980 S 28. In 1983 it was officially named after Atlas of Greek mythology, because it "holds the rings on its shoulders" like the Titan Atlas held the sky up above the Earth. It is also designated Saturn XV.
A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body. Natural satellites are colloquially referred to as moons, a derivation from the Moon of Earth.
Rhea is the second-largest moon of Saturn and the ninth-largest moon in the Solar System, with a surface area that is comparable to the area of Australia. It is the smallest body in the Solar System for which precise measurements have confirmed a shape consistent with hydrostatic equilibrium. Rhea has a nearly circular orbit around Saturn, but it also orbits synchronously, like many of Saturn's other major moons; that is, it rotates at the same speed it revolves (orbits), so one hemisphere is always held facing inwards to the planet.
Helene is a moon of Saturn. It was discovered by Pierre Laques and Jean Lecacheux in 1980 from ground-based observations at Pic du Midi Observatory, and was designated S/1980 S 6. In 1988 it was officially named after Helen of Troy, who was the granddaughter of Cronus (Saturn) in Greek mythology. Helene is also designated Saturn XII (12), which it was given in 1982, and Dione B, because it is co-orbital with Dione and located in its leading Lagrangian point (L4). It is one of four known trojan moons.
Tethys, or Saturn III, is the fifth-largest moon of Saturn, measuring about 1,060 km (660 mi) across. It was discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1684, and is named after the titan Tethys of Greek mythology.
Iapetus is the outermost of Saturn's large moons. With an estimated diameter of 1,469 km (913 mi), it is the third-largest moon of Saturn and the eleventh-largest in the Solar System. Named after the Titan Iapetus, the moon was discovered in 1671 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
Janus is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as Saturn X. It is named after the mythological Janus.
Epimetheus is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as Saturn XI. It is named after the mythological Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus.
Pandora is an inner satellite of Saturn. It was discovered in 1980 from photos taken by the Voyager 1 probe and was provisionally designated S/1980 S 26. In late 1985, it was officially named after Pandora from Greek mythology. It is also designated as Saturn XVII.
Calypso is a moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 1980, from ground-based observations, by Dan Pascu, P. Kenneth Seidelmann, William A. Baum, and Douglas G. Currie, and was provisionally designated S/1980 S 25. Several other apparitions of it were recorded in the following months: S/1980 S 29, S/1980 S 30, S/1980 S 32, and S/1981 S 2. In 1983 it was officially named after Calypso of Greek mythology. It is also designated Saturn XIV or Tethys C.
Dione, also designated Saturn IV, is the fourth-largest moon of Saturn. With a mean diameter of 1,123 km and a density of about 1.48 g/cm3, Dione is composed of an icy mantle and crust overlying a silicate rocky core, with rock and water ice roughly equal in mass. Its trailing hemisphere is marked by large cliffs and scarps called chasmata; the trailing hemisphere is also significantly darker compared to the leading hemisphere.
Prometheus is an inner satellite of Saturn. It was discovered on 24 October 1980 from photos taken by the Voyager 1 probe, and was provisionally designated S/1980 S 27.
The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets only tens of meters across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. There are 146 moons with confirmed orbits, the most of any planet in the solar system. This number does not include the many thousands of moonlets embedded within Saturn's dense rings, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized distant moons that were seen through telescopes but not recaptured. Seven Saturnian moons are large enough to have collapsed into a relaxed, ellipsoidal shape, though only one or two of those, Titan and possibly Rhea, are currently in hydrostatic equilibrium. Three moons are particularly notable. Titan is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, with a nitrogen-rich Earth-like atmosphere and a landscape featuring river networks and hydrocarbon lakes. Enceladus emits jets of ice from its south-polar region and is covered in a deep layer of snow. Iapetus has contrasting black and white hemispheres as well as an extensive ridge of equatorial mountains among the tallest in the solar system.
Methone is a small, egg-shaped natural satellite of Saturn that orbits out past Saturn's ring system, between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. It was discovered in 2004, though it wasn't until 2012 that it was imaged in detail by the Cassini spacecraft.
Pallene is a very small natural satellite of Saturn. It is one of three small moons known as the Alkyonides that lie between the orbits of the larger Mimas and Enceladus. It is also designated Saturn XXXIII.
S/2004 S 3 is the provisional designation of an object seen orbiting Saturn just beyond the outer strand of the F ring on June 21, 2004. It was discovered by the Cassini Imaging Science Team in images taken by the Cassini–Huygens probe on June 21, 2004 and announced on September 9, 2004.
In astronomy, a co-orbital configuration is a configuration of two or more astronomical objects orbiting at the same, or very similar, distance from their primary; i.e., they are in a 1:1 mean-motion resonance..
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