Daphnis (moon)
Daphnis in cropped Cassini probe image (2017).
|
|
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Cassini Imaging Science Team |
| Discovery date | May 6, 2005 |
| Designations | |
| Adjectives | Daphnidian |
| Orbital characteristics | |
|
Mean orbit radius
|
136505.5±0.1 km |
| Eccentricity | 0.0000331±0.0000062 |
| 0.5940798 d (14.257915 h) | |
| Inclination | 0.0036°±0.0013° |
| Satellite of | Saturn |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 8.6 × 8.2 × 6.4 km |
|
Mean radius
|
3.8±0.8 km |
| Mass | (7.7±1.5)×1013 kg |
|
Mean density
|
0.34±0.26 g/cm³ |
| 0.0001–0.0004 m/s2 | |
| synchronous | |
| unknown | |
| Albedo | ≈ 0.5 |
| Temperature | ≈ 78 K |
Daphnis (/ˈdæfnᵻs/ DAF-nis; Greek: Δάφνις) is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as Saturn XXXV; its provisional designation was S/2005 S 1. Daphnis is about 8 kilometres in diameter, and orbits the planet in the Keeler Gap within the A ring.
The moon was named in 2006 after Daphnis, a shepherd, pipes player, and pastoral poet in Greek mythology; he was descendant of the Titans, after whom the largest moons of Saturn are named. Both Daphnis and Pan, the only other known shepherd moon to orbit within Saturn's main rings, are named for mythological figures associated with shepherds.
Before it was photographed, the existence of a moon in Daphnis's position had already been inferred from gravitational ripples observed on the outer edge of the Keeler gap.
Daphnis was discovered by the Cassini Imaging Science Team on May 6, 2005. The discovery images were taken by the Cassini probe over 16 min on May 1, 2005, from a time-lapse sequence of 0.180 second narrow-angle-camera exposures of the outer edge of the A ring. The moon was subsequently found in 32 low-phase images taken of the F ring on April 13, 2005 (spanning 18 min) and again in two high-resolution (3.54 km/pixel) low-phase images taken on May 2, 2005, when its 7 km disk was resolved.
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