Saturn’s innermost moon “Pan” looks like wontons? (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
Text/Reporter Chen Juncun
In addition to its beautiful rings, Saturn is also famous for its many moons, including very small and peculiar ones. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently released a picture of Saturn’s innermost satellite. This satellite actually looks like a “ravioli”.
NASA released two pictures of the satellite named “Pan” on its Instagram website. “Pan” is the innermost satellite of Saturn, also known as Pan.
NASA asked people, what does this strange-looking little satellite look like? “Ravioli, pierogi, empanada…what do you see? There are no wrong answers,” the agency wrote on Instagram.
NASA said the two images were taken from different angles by the Cassini spacecraft. They show how Cassini’s camera angle changes as it passes 24,600 kilometers from Pan. This is the closest Cassini has come to Pan, improving the resolution of previous observations.
“Pan” orbits Saturn at an altitude of 134,000 kilometers with a period of 13.8 hours. American astronomer MR Showalter discovered “Pan” in 1990 while analyzing early images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
Pan’s equatorial ridges (ridge-like structures near the equator) give it a strange dumpling-like appearance, which is similar to that of Atlas, another moon of Saturn. Very similar.
According to the Central News Agency, an international research team including Academia Sinica discovered 62 new satellites of Saturn, bringing the total number of satellites of Saturn to 145, more than Jupiter. Saturn once again became the planet with the most satellites in the solar system. This research has been submitted to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) for certification and announcement.
Wang Xiangyu, a researcher at Academia Sinica, said that the newly discovered Saturn satellites are very small, with the smallest diameter only 2.5 kilometers, and cannot be directly observed from telescopes.
To this end, the research team overlaid the data observed between 2019 and 2021 at various possible speeds of the satellite orbiting Saturn. After discovering the new points of light, they compared the results of telescopes at different times to determine whether they were objects orbiting Saturn and to identify these satellites.
NASA pointed out that most of Saturn’s moons are named after giants and their descendants in Greek mythology, and the newly discovered moons have forced scientists to start naming them after mythological figures from other parts of Europe.
Numerous moons near Saturn’s rings, including Pan. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
In Greek mythology, “Pan” is the god of fauns, with the torso and head of a human and the legs and hooves of a goat.
Cassini ran out of fuel in September 2017 and was set to crash into Saturn and self-destruct. After passing through Saturn’s atmosphere, it fell to the surface of Saturn like a meteor, bringing an end to its 20-year space voyage. ◇
