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It may also refer to the time it takes a satellite orbiting a planet or moon to complete one orbit. For celestial objects in general, the orbital period is determined by a 360° revolution of one body around its primary, e.g. Earth around the Sun. Periods in astronomy are expressed in units of time, usually hours, days, or years.
It takes more than 725 days to complete one orbit around Saturn, and it does so at an average distance of 15,576,000 kilometres (9,678,000 mi). [5] An orbital period of just over two years is fast for an irregular satellite of Saturn, and Skathi completes an orbit faster than any other named retrograde moon of Saturn except Phoebe.
Saturn's satellite system is very lopsided: one moon, Titan, comprises more than 96% of the mass in orbit around the planet. The six other planemo ( ellipsoidal ) moons constitute roughly 4% of the mass, and the remaining small moons, together with the rings, comprise only 0.04%.
In astronomy, the rotation period or spin period [1] of a celestial object (e.g., star, planet, moon, asteroid) has two definitions. The first one corresponds to the sidereal rotation period (or sidereal day), i.e., the time that the object takes to complete a full rotation around its axis relative to the background stars (inertial space).
The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci. A line segment joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time. The square of a planet's orbital period is proportional to the cube of the length of the semi-major axis of its orbit.
Saturn's moon Mimas is known for its uncanny resemblance to the dreaded Death Star in the original "Star Wars" movie. ... Mimas follows an elliptical orbit around Saturn at an average distance of ...
Saturn’s moon Enceladus may have all the ingredients necessary to host life, according to a new study based on data from Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft mission.. The spacecraft ended its mission in ...
The Moon's orbit is inclined by several degrees relative to Saturn's, so occultations will only occur when Saturn is near one of the points in the sky where the two planes intersect (both the length of Saturn's year and the 18.6-Earth-year nodal precession period of the Moon's orbit influence the periodicity). [179]