Moonlet

A moonlet, minor moon, minor natural satellite, or minor satellite is a particularly small natural satellite orbiting a planet, dwarf planet, or other minor planet.

The 400-meter moonlet Earhart in Saturn's A Ring, just outside the Encke Gap.
Another image of Earhart
Another moonlet named Bleriot
A moonlet named Santos-Dumont
A moonlet in Saturn's Ring A.

Up until 1995, moonlets were only hypothetical components of Saturn's F-ring structure, when the Earth passed through Saturn's ring plane. The Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory both captured objects orbiting close or near the F-ring. In 2004, when Cassini caught an object 4-5km 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]

Three different types of small moons have been called moonlets:

See also

References
  1. O.C. Winter; et al. (2007). "Moonlets wandering on a leash-ring". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 380 (1): L54–L57. doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2007.00347.x.
  2. Matthew S. Tiscareno; et al. (2006). "100-metre-diameter moonlets in Saturn's A ring from observations of 'propeller' structures". Nature. 440 (7084): 648–650. Bibcode:2006Natur.440..648T. doi:10.1038/nature04581. PMID 16572165.
  3. Miodrag Sremčević; et al. (2007). "A belt of moonlets in Saturn's A ring". Nature. 449 (7165): 1019–1021. Bibcode:2007Natur.449.1019S. doi:10.1038/nature06224. PMID 17960236.
  4. Carl D. Murray; et al. (June 5, 2008). "The determination of the structure of Saturn's F ring by nearby moonlets". Nature. The Science and Technology Facilities Council. 453 (7196): 739–44. Bibcode:2008Natur.453..739M. doi:10.1038/nature06999. PMID 18528389. Archived from the original on December 23, 2012.
  5. F. Marchis; et al. (2005). "Discovery of the triple asteroidal system 87 Sylvia". Nature. 436 (7052): 822–24. Bibcode:2005Natur.436..822M. doi:10.1038/nature04018. PMID 16094362.
  6. Robert Walker (17 April 2015). "Can Moons Have Moonlets? Or Rings? Moonlets Of Pluto's Moons?". Science 2.0. Retrieved 9 April 2016.

Further reading
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