page_title: Moons of Saturn
section_title: Discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Moons of Saturn / Discovery
caption_attribution_description: English: 2 minute exposure of Saturn and its moons with a 12.5" telescope. Saturn is apparent magnitude 0.8 in this image taken at 2010-03-04 11:45 UT. Saturn is overexposed to bring out fainter objects. During this photo the moon was 81% full and only 34 degrees away. Objects visible in this photo: Two bright background stars to the upper left of Saturn Iapetus: 2 o'clock position (directly above NGC 4179 at 4 o'clock) Titan: bright-outer moon (magnitude 8) at 3 o'clock Dione: 3 o'clock inner moon NGC 4179: 4 o'clock Hyperion: faint-outer moon (magnitude 14) at 9 o'clock Rhea: inner moon at 9 o'clock See also: JPL Solar System Simulator for Saturn at 2010-03-04 11:45 UT. Magnitudes of Classic Satellites of the Solar System (Observatorio ARVAL)
context_page_description: The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets only tens of meters across to enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has 82 moons with confirmed orbits that are not embedded in its rings – of which only 13 have diameters greater than 50 kilometers – as well as dense rings that contain millions of embedded moonlets and innumerable smaller ring particles. 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. Particularly notable among Saturn's moons are Titan, the second-largest moon in the Solar System, with a nitrogen-rich Earth-like atmosphere and a landscape featuring dry river networks and hydrocarbon lakes, Enceladus, which emits jets of gas and dust from its south-polar region, and Iapetus, with its contrasting black and white hemispheres.
  Twenty-four of Saturn's moons are regular satellites; they have prograde orbits not greatly inclined to Saturn's equatorial plane.
caption: Saturn (overexposed) and the moons Iapetus, Titan, Dione, Hyperion, and Rhea viewed through a 12.5-inch telescope
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