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Amoonlet,minor moon,minor natural satellite, orminor satellite is a particularly smallnatural satellite orbiting aplanet,dwarf planet, or otherminor planet.
Up until 1995, moonlets were only hypothetical components of Saturn's F-ring structure, but in that year, the Earth passed through Saturn's ring plane. TheHubble Space Telescope and theEuropean Southern Observatory both captured objects orbiting close or near the F-ring. In 2004,Cassini caught an object 4–5 kilometers in diameter on the outer ring of the F-ring and then 5 hours later on the inner F-ring, showing that the object had orbited.[1]
Several different types of small moons have been called moonlets:
Listed in approximate increasing distance from Saturn | |||||||||
| Inner ring moons | |||||||||
| Co-orbitals | |||||||||
| Ring-embedded moons | |||||||||
| Major moons (withtrojans) | |||||||||
| Inuit group (36) |
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| Gallic group (17) | |||||||||
| Norse group (197) |
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| See also | |||||||||
