Space Topics: Saturn
Atlas (S/1980 S28)
The A Ring Shepherd
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Atlas
A Cassini view of Atlas from only 162,000 kilometers away revealed its unusual
shape. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI
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Size: Irregular, 37 by 27 kilometers - 14th largest moon
of Saturn
Orbital radius: 137,670 kilometers - 2.28 Saturn radii
- just outside the A ring
Orbital period: 0.6019 days - about 1/27 of Titan’s
Discovery: 1980 by Richard J. Terrile
Atlas is a tiny moon orbiting just outside Saturn's A ring. It has a noticeable
equatorial bulge, giving it a "flying saucer" shape, that may represent material
accumulated from Saturn's rings.
Atlas, embedded in the rings
Atlas is visible is a lumpy moon embedded in the ring plane between
the A and F rings. This image was taken from a vantage point just barely
above the ring plane on February 18, 2005, from a distance of 914,000
kilometers from Atlas. The gray background is the globe of Saturn,
which is another 76,000 kilometers away. Source Credit:
NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute |
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Atlas
Cassini flew to within 40,000 kilometers of Atlas on June 12, 2007 to capture this view of the unusually-shaped moon. The view is toward Atlas' south pole. The color composite is made from raw image data; small spots of color result from the removal of noise in the image.
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Color composite by Emily Lakdawalla
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