Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Moon Found In Saturn's G-Ring

Posted by kdawson on from the ring-herder dept.

caffiend666 writes "Scientists have announced a new moon has been found hidden in the G Ring of Saturn. The discovery was announced Tuesday in a notice by the International Astronomical Union. This is one of over five dozen moons, and is only a third of a mile wide. No word yet on a name for the new moon; I vote Cowboy Neal."

5 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. A third of a mile makes it a moon? by CronoCloud · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can you really call an object a third of a mile wide a "moon" rather than "just a rocky piece of junk that orbits Saturn, like a whole bunch of other stuff."

    1. Re:A third of a mile makes it a moon? by dotancohen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It doesn't scale to other systems. Jupiter has a moon larger in volume than Mercury, for instance.

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    2. Re:A third of a mile makes it a moon? by cbiltcliffe · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So you use a percentage size of the parent body.

      That way, Jupiter can have a moon the size of Mars, and Mercury still can't have a moon bigger than itself.

      --
      "City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
    3. Re:A third of a mile makes it a moon? by rnturn · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ``Pluto was one of the first big finds for American Astronomers, and many thing that its classification as a planet (and the continued uproar over its declassification) is just an American power play.''

      Oh I think you're a little too anxious to blame on some jingoistic power play.

      Actually, we're just pissed off that that mnemonic phrase about ``Mister Victor'' we all learned in grade school is obsolete if Pluto isn't a planet.

      --
      CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  2. Re:G-ring? by Feminist-Mom · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seriously, I wonder if this is related to predictions from recent work in celestial mechanics, like by people like mathematicians Richard Montgomery. There is a revolution(no pun intended) in that area now.