Inastronomy, aninner moon orinner natural satellite is anatural satellite following aprograde, low-inclinationorbit inwards of the large satellites of the parent planet. They are generally thought to have been formedin situ at the same time as the coalescence of the original planet.Neptune's moons are an exception, as they are likely reaggregates of the pieces of the original bodies, which were disrupted after the capture of the large moonTriton.[1] Inner satellites are distinguished from otherregular satellites by their proximity to the parentplanet, their short orbital periods (usually under a day), their low mass, small size, and irregular shapes.
Thirty inner satellites are currently known, found orbiting around all four of thegiant planets (Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus andNeptune). Because of their small size, and glare from the nearby planet, they can be very difficult to observe from Earth. Some, such asPan andDaphnis at Saturn, have only ever been observed by spacecraft.
The first inner satellite to be observed wasAmalthea, discovered byE. E. Barnard in 1892. Next were the Saturnian moonsEpimetheus andJanus, observed in 1966. These two moonsshare the same orbit, and the resulting confusion over their status was not resolved until theVoyager 1 flyby in 1980. Most of the remaining inner satellites were discovered by spacecraftVoyager 1 andVoyager 2 during their flybys of Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1980), Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989).
In more recent years, further inner satellites have been found orbiting Saturn by theCassini spacecraft from 2005 to 2009, and orbiting Uranus (2003) and Neptune (2013) by theHubble Space Telescope.
All inner satellites follow nearly circular, prograde orbits. Themedian eccentricity is 0.0012, while the most eccentric inner satellite isThebe with e=0.0177. Their inclination to their planets' equatorial planes is also very low. All but one have inclinations below one degree, the median being 0.1°. Naiad, Neptune's closest moon, is the exception, being inclined at 4.75° to Neptune's equator.
The innermost satellites orbit within the planetary rings, well within the fluidRoche limit, and only the internal strength and friction of their materials prevents them from being torn apart by tidal forces. This means that, if a pebble were placed in the part of the satellite furthest away from the planet, the tidal force outward is stronger than the satellite's gravity planetward, so the pebble would fall upward. This is why photos of these satellites show them to be completely clean of pebbles, dust and rocks.
The most extreme cases are Saturn's moonPan, which orbits within the rings at only 70% of its fluid Roche limit, as well as Neptune's moonNaiad. Naiad's density is unknown, so its precise Roche limit is also unknown, but if its density were below 1100 kg/m3 it would lie at an even smaller fraction of its Roche limit than Pan.
Those satellites which have an orbital period shorter than their planet's rotation period experiencetidal deceleration, causing a very gradual spiraling in towards the planet. In the distant future these moons will impact the planet or penetrate deeply enough within their Roche limit to be tidally disrupted into fragments. The moons so affected areMetis andAdrastea at Jupiter, and the majority of the inner moons of Uranus and Neptune − out to and includingPerdita andLarissa, respectively. However, none of Saturn's moons experience this effect because Saturn is a relatively very fast rotator.
The inner satellites are small in comparison with the major moons of their respective planets. All are too small to have attained a gravitationally-collapsed spheroidal shape. Many are highly elongated, such as for example, Amalthea, which is twice as long as wide. By far the largest of the inner satellites is Proteus, which is about 440 km across in its longest dimension and close to spherical, but not spherical enough to be considered a gravitationally collapsed shape. Proteus is larger thanMimas, the smallest known round satellite. Most known inner satellites are 50 to 200 km across, while the smallest confirmed is Daphnis at 6 to 8 km in size. (Aegaeon is even smaller at0.66±0.12 km across, but is not large enough to clear a channel in the rings, as Daphnis does.) Unconfirmed bodies orbiting close to Saturn'sF ring, such asS/2004 S 6, may be somewhat smaller moons, if they are not transient clumps of dust instead. TheCassini spacecraft has recently found indications (small dusty rings) that even smaller moonlets may be orbiting in theCassini Division.[2] The size of the smallestknown inner moons around the outer planets increases with distance from the Sun, but this trend is thought to be due to increasingly difficult lighting and observing conditions rather than any physical trend. Smaller inner moons may eventually be discovered.
Inner satellites are alltidally locked, that is, their orbit issynchronous with their rotation so that they only show one face toward their parent planet. Their long axes are typically aligned to point towards their planet.
All the inner satellites of Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have very dark surfaces with analbedo between 0.06 (Metis) and 0.10 (Adrastea). Saturn's satellites, in contrast, have very bright surfaces, with albedos between 0.4 and 0.6. This is thought to be because their surfaces are being coated with fresh ice particles swept up from the ring system within which they orbit. The inner satellites around the other planets may have been darkened byspace weathering. None of the known inner satellites possesses an atmosphere.
The inner satellites that have been imaged show heavily cratered surfaces. The cratering rate for bodies orbiting close to giant planets is greater than for the main and outer moons because ofgravitational focusing: Sun-orbiting bodies which pass into a large region in the vicinity of agiant planet are preferentially deflected towards the planet by its gravitational field, so that the frequency of potential impactors passing through a given cross-sectional area close to the planet is much greater than in interplanetary space. As a result, it has been estimated that very small bodies in inner orbits are expected to be disrupted by external impactors on a timescale much shorter than the age of theSolar System. This would place a lower limit on the size of the inner moons that remain.
At least two of Saturn's inner moons (Atlas and Prometheus) have equatorial ridges. The ridge on Atlas is particularly prominent. Also, Pandora is mantled by some kind of fine deposit. It has been suggested that these features are due to the accretion of ring material onto these moons. Further evidence for such a process may include the low density of these bodies (due, perhaps, to the looseness of material so accumulated), and their high albedo. Prometheus has been seen to attract diffuse material from the F ring during periodic close approaches.
Jupiter has the smallest set of inner satellites, including only the following four:
TheGalileo spacecraft may have observed some moonlets near Amalthea's orbit.[3]
Saturn's nine known inner satellites are closely related to itsring system, and many of them orbit within the rings, creating gaps or "shepherded" ringlets between them.
S/2009 S 1 and Aegaeon are not large enough to clear their own channels in the rings. The same is true of the small moonsMethone,Anthe, andPallene, which orbit between the larger Saturnian moons Mimas andEnceladus.
A number of localised objects such asS/2004 S 3,S/2004 S 4, andS/2004 S 6, sometimes surrounded by a dusty halo, have been seen in the vicinity of theF ring, but at present it is not clear whether they are all transient clumps or whether some may include small solid objects (moons).
Uranus has by far the most extensive system of inner satellites, containing thirteen known moons:
Neptune has seven known inner satellites:
It is thought that they arerubble piles re-accreted from fragments of Neptune's original satellites (inner or not). These were strongly perturbed byTriton in the period soon after that moon's capture into a very eccentric initial orbit. The perturbations led to collisions between the satellites, and that portion of the fragments that were not lost re-accreted into the present inner satellites after Triton's orbit became circularised.[1]
Most of the inner satellites have been imaged by the spacecraftVoyager 1 andVoyager 2. The majority have only been seen in images as single pixels, or resolved to only a few pixels across. However fairly detailed surface features have been seen on the following moons:
| Planet | Spacecraft | |||
| Voyager 1 | Voyager 2 | Galileo | Cassini | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jupiter | Amalthea | Amalthea Thebe | ||
| Saturn | Pandora Prometheus Janus Epimetheus | Pan Daphnis Atlas Pandora Prometheus Janus Epimetheus | ||
| Uranus | Puck | |||
| Neptune | Larissa Proteus | |||
| Planetary satellites of |    | |
|---|---|---|
| Dwarf planet satellites of | ||
| Minor-planet moons | ||
| Ranked by size | ||