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The inclination and semi-major axis are represented on the Y and X-axis, respectively. The satellites with inclinations below 90° are prograde, those above 90° are retrograde. The X-axis is labeled in terms of Saturn's Hill radius. The Gallic group is a dynamical grouping of the prograde irregular satellites of Saturn following similar orbits.
In the Solar System, many of the asteroid-sized moons have retrograde orbits, whereas all the large moons except Triton (the largest of Neptune's moons) have prograde orbits. [13] The particles in Saturn's Phoebe ring are thought to have a retrograde orbit because they originate from the irregular moon Phoebe.
The prograde satellites consist of the Himalia group and three others in groups of one. The retrograde moons are grouped into the Carme, Ananke and Pasiphae groups. Saturn has 146 moons with known orbits; 66 of them have received permanent designations, and 63 have been named. Most of them are quite small.
Two prograde moons of Saturn do not definitively belong to either the Inuit or Gallic groups. [1] S/2004 S 24 and S/2006 S 12 have similar orbital inclinations as the Gallic group, but have much more distant orbits with semi-major axes of ~400 Saturn radii and ~340 Saturn radii, respectively. [84] [13] [1]
The new discovery increases the moons orbiting the "jewel of our solar system" to 82, surpassing Jupiter
One of these is the most distant moon of Saturn. A public naming contest for these moons was announced, restricted to names from Norse mythology. [1] Ten of these moons received official names in August 2022. [2] The members of the group are (in order of increasing distance from Saturn according to JPL mean orbital elements): [3]
The X-axis is labeled in terms of Saturn's Hill radius. The Inuit group is a dynamical grouping of the prograde irregular satellites of Saturn which follow similar orbits. Their semi-major axes range between 11 and 19 Gm, their inclinations between 45° and 50°, and their eccentricities between 0.11 and 0.39. They take an average of 2 years to ...
Saturn – sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Although only one-eighth the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more massive.