Twelve new moons for Saturn

[emad]

By Dr David Whitehouse
Science Editor, BBC News website


Astronomers have discovered 12 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing its number of natural satellites to 46.

The moons are small, irregular bodies - probably only about 3-7km in size - that are far from Saturn and take about two years to complete one orbit.

All but one circles Saturn in the opposite direction to its larger moons - a characteristic of captured bodies.

Jupiter is the planet with the most moons, 63 at the last count. Saturn now has 46. Uranus has 27 and Neptune 13.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4511715.stm

[Ian David]

1. Update: Tom DeLay campaigns to add Saturn's moons to his district n/t

[Ian David]

2. Useful, practical applications: Deflecting and/or capturing asteroids

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"The key question is how they became captured by Saturn. The current models devised to explain how such bodies are captured are unable to explain why they reach the orbits they do," said Dr Jewitt.

"The new discoveries should improve our knowledge of satellite systems in general and should, eventually, lead to an understanding of how such small, irregular bodies are captured by the gravity of giant planets".

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4511715.stm
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I think that if we gain a better understanding of precisely how these asteroids were captured, we will have a better idea of how to deflect Earth-Crossing asteroids.

We could also use this information to guide smaller bodies into useful parking orbits around the Earth, Moon, or in a LaGrange point somewhere to be mined.

Maybe we could even figure out how to modify an asteroid's orbit so it could be used to piggy-back space capsules making the journey from Earth to Mars!

A capsule parked on (or flying alongside)the dark side of a good-sized chunk of rock could be shielded from much of the solar radiation. And the asteroid may even contain material for in situ resource utilization-- topsoil, water, oxygen, etc.)

See also:
In Situ Resource Utilization
http://www.pnl.gov/microcats/apps/space/lunarland.html

Near Earth Asteroid Prospector
http://www.spacedev.com/newsite/templates/subpage3.php?pid=191&subNav=11&subSel=3