Probe Casts New Light on Saturn’s Mystery Moon
June 15, 2004
A PROBE nearing Saturn has taken close-up photos of the planet’s mystery moon Phoebe.
The images were sent by Cassini, which will go into orbit around Saturn on 1 July for a four-year “grand tour” of the ringed planet. Phoebe, 220km wide, orbits in the opposite direction to Saturn’s other moons. Its surface appears to contain ice and an unidentified dark material. Scientists have suggested it might have started life as a comet-like object in the far reaches of the solar system.