Cassini is on its last leg of its mission on Saturn. The last mission would also be the most exciting, as it would have the spacecraft graze the outer edges of Saturn's rings. The last leg of the mission has begun, and data from it are being studied. Cassini shows that Saturn's moons might be younger than earlier thought.
The Cassini mission is changing the way astronomers look at Saturn. This is the assessment of Cornell research associate in Astronomy and member of the Encelade research team Radwan Tajedinne. He has said that many theories about Saturn are now being challenged with the data provided by Cassini.
The Encelade team is one of a number of research teams going over data provided by Cassini. The team is led by Valery Lainey of the Paris Observatory. One of the findings made by the team based on data from Cassini is that Saturn's moons are moving away faster than other moons in the solar system. The moons of planets move away from the planets at a much slower rate.
The team has looked into four of Saturn's smaller moons along with two larger ones. The moons are Telesto and Calypso along with Tethys, and Helene and Polydeuces with Dione. The four smaller moons are affected by Saturn's core tidal bulges, according to Cornell University's site.
The team has been able to measure that the moons are moving faster from Saturn. They have also found that the moons might be younger than previously thought. The moons are much closer than they would have been if they were formed together with Saturn 4.5 billion years ago, as Phys Org reports. The theory now is that the moons have been formed by material from Saturn's rings.
One moon is also moving much faster than the others. Rhea is seen to be moving away 10 times faster than the others. There is still no explanation as to why the moon is moving much faster. The Cassini mission will run until September 2017. It will end its mission with a crash into Saturn. With much data about Saturn, Cassini shows that Saturn's moons might be younger. Scientists are also looking into the chemical composition of comets.
