page_title: Moonlet
hierarchical_section_title: Moonlet
caption_attribution_description: English: A new moon (S/2010 S 2)
context_page_description: A moonlet, minor moon, minor natural satellite, or minor satellite is a particularly small natural satellite orbiting a planet, dwarf planet, or other minor planet.
  Up until 1995, moonlets were only hypothetical components of Saturn's F-ring structure, when the Earth passed through Saturn's ring plane. The Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory both captured objects orbiting close or near the F-ring. In 2004, Cassini caught an object 4-5km in diameter on the outer ring of the F-ring and then 5 hours later on the inner F-ring, showing that the object had orbited.
  Three different types of small moons have been called moonlets:
  A belt of objects embedded in a planetary ring, especially around Saturn, such as those in the A Ring, S/2009 S 1 in the B Ring, and those in the F Ring
  Occasionally asteroid moons, such as those of 87 Sylvia
  Subsatellites
context_section_description: A moonlet, minor moon, minor natural satellite, or minor satellite is a particularly small natural satellite orbiting a planet, dwarf planet, or other minor planet.
  Up until 1995, moonlets were only hypothetical components of Saturn's F-ring structure, when the Earth passed through Saturn's ring plane.  The Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory both captured objects orbiting close or near the F-ring.  In 2004, Cassini caught an object 4-5km in diameter on the outer ring of the F-ring and then 5 hours later on the inner F-ring, showing that the object had orbited.
  Three different types of small moons have been called moonlets:
  A belt of objects embedded in a planetary ring, especially around Saturn, such as those in the A Ring, S/2009 S 1 in the B Ring ("propeller" moonlets), and those in the F Ring
  Occasionally asteroid moons, such as those of 87 Sylvia
  Subsatellites
caption: A moonlet in Saturn's Ring A.
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