Moon Discoveries

Four New Saturn Satellites Discovered in 1995!

Congratulation to Amanda Bosh and A. Rivkin who have announced the discovery of four new possible satellites of Saturn in IAU Circular 6192. The new satellites were detected using the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera II during the May 22 Saturn ring plane crossing. Ron Baalke has the IAU Circular and images available on the Saturn Ring Plane Crossing home page.

Other Moon Discoveries

During a ring plane crossing when the rings are edge-on to Earth, the glare from the rings is reduced considerably, and faint objects near Saturn are easier to see. Most of Saturn's moons have been discovered during ring plane crossing events, including three new moons during the last ring plane crossings in 1979-1980.

Saturn's Moons Found Near Ring-Plane Crossings

             RINGS      YEAR OF
SATELLITE   EDGE-ON    DISCOVERY     DISCOVERERS

Titan       1655-56      1655        Huygens
lapetus     1671-72      1671        Cassini
Rhea        1671-72      1672        Cassini
Tethys      1685         1684        Cassini
Dione       1685         1684        Cassini
Enceladus   1789-90      1789        Herschel
Mimas       1789-90      1789        Herschel
Hyperion    1848-49      1848        G. Bond, W. Bond, Lassell
Janus       1966         1966        Dollfus
Epimetheus  1966         1966        Fountain, Larson, Walker
Telesto     1979-80      1980        Smith, Larson, Reitsema
Calypso     1979-80      1980        Pascu, Seidelmann, Baum, Currie
Helene      1979-80      1980        Laques, Lecacheux

The discoveries of five moons were unrelated to ring-plane crossings. Phoebe was captured photographically by William Pickering in 1898 while Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, and Pandora were found in Voyager images from 1980 and 1981.