Saturn's Moons

Picture of Saturn's Moons

Saturn's Named Moons (Biggest to Smallest)
  1. Titan 5150 Km in Diameter
  2. Rhea
  3. Iapetus
  4. Dione
  5. Tethys
  6. Enceladus
  7. Mimas
  8. Hyperion
  9. Phoebe
  10. Janus
  1. Epimetheus
  2. Pandora
  3. Prometheus
  4. Helene
  5. Telesto
  6. Atlas
  7. Calypso
  8. Pan - 20 Km in Diameter

Some of Saturn's Major Moons
Saturn's Moon Saturn's Moon
Titan Rhea
Saturn's Moon Saturn's Moon
Dione Mimas
Notice above and to the right, orbiting Saturn it's the Death Star!! No really it's just Mimas the innermost of Saturn's larger moons. The crater, named Herschel, on Mimas is huge!! Mimas was nearly shattered by a cataclysmic impact that created this crater on it's surface. Had it been shattered from this impact it would have added to Saturn's ring system and could have given Saturn even more rings or at the very least a thicker ring system.

This crater is particularily amazing because of its sheer size in proportion to the moon itself. From observing this crater, scientists speculate that the inner satellites of the outer planets have, in fact, been shattered and gravitationally reassembled many times in their geologic history. The crater Herschel's walls are approximately 5 km (3.2 mi) high, parts of its floor measure 10 km (6.2 mi) deep, and its central peak rises 6 km (3.7 mi) above the crater floor!
Saturn's Moon Saturn's Moon
Enceladus Iapetus
Saturn's Moon Saturn's Moon
Tethys Hyperion


In comparison to these moons, our moon is 3,476 Km in Diameter. The Earth is 12,756 Km in Diameter, roughly 3.7 times the size of the moon. When you consider how large our moon is relative to the Earth, the moons of the gas giants are very small in proportion to their host planets. In Saturn's case, it's largest moon, Titan is 5150 Km in Diameter where Saturn itself is 120,660 Km's in Diameter. Therefore Saturn is roughly 23.4 times Titan's size! A much larger proportion than that of the Earth to its' moon.

Similarily, Pluto is less than twice the size of it's moon Charon. Which leads you to wonder, "How close in size do the moon and planet need to be before it becomes difficult to determine which is orbiting which?"


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