The Irregular Satellites

Details The Irregular Satellites The Irregular Satellites

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.1625b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #16.25

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Scientific paper

The irregular planetary satellites provide a history of capture and collisional processes in the Solar System, and they offer a view of objects that often formed in a different location from their parent bodies. These moons are a diverse group of objects, ranging from low-albedo captured asteroids to high-albedo moonlets orbiting within Saturn's rings. Some are pristine debris left over from the early ages of the formation of the Solar System, while others are highly evolved, even differentiated objects or collisional fragments. The outermost satellites may provide contaminating dust to the major planetary satellites, and recent studies show that they often impact each other. Although Phobos and Diemos are probably the only irregular satellites that merit a dedicated mission, missions to the outer planets would be enhanced by planning effective observations of the irregular satellites. An example of such planning is afforded by the Cassini flyby of Phoebe, which provided the first glimpse of what is probably a captured Kuiper Belt Object.

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