page_title: Methone (moon)
hierarchical_section_title: Methone (moon)
caption_attribution_description: English: It's difficult not to think of an egg when looking at Saturn's moon Methone, seen here during a Cassini flyby of the small moon. The relatively smooth surface adds to the effect created by the oblong shape. Small moons like Methone are not generally spherical in shape like the larger moons. Their small sizes means that they lack sufficient gravity to pull themselves into round shape. Scientists think that the elongated shapes of these moons may be a clue to how they formed. Lit terrain seen here is on the leading side of Methone (2 miles, 3 kilometers across). North on Methone is up. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2012. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 3,000 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Methone and at a Sun-Methone-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 63 degrees. Scale in the original image was 88 feet (27 meters) per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of 2. The Cassini Solstice Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. The original NASA image has been modified by cropping and a further doubling of the linear pixel density.
context_page_description: Methone is a very small natural satellite of Saturn orbiting between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. It was discovered in 2004, and in 2012 was imaged more closely by the Cassini orbiter probe.
context_section_description: Methone /mɛˈθoʊniː/ is a very small natural satellite of Saturn orbiting between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. It was discovered in 2004, and in 2012 was imaged more closely by the Cassini orbiter probe.
caption: Cassini image of Methone's leading side taken on 20 May 2012
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