                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2021 July 6

                            Saturn and Six Moons
   Image Credit & Copyright: Mohammad Ranjbaran; MR Thanks: Amir Ehteshami

   Explanation: How many moons does Saturn have? So far 82 have been
   confirmed, the smallest being only a fraction of a kilometer across.
   Six of its largest satellites can be seen here in a composite image
   with 13 short exposure of the bright planet, and 13 long exposures of
   the brightest of its faint moons, taken over two weeks last month.
   Larger than Earth's Moon and even slightly larger than Mercury,Saturn's
   largest moon Titan has a diameter of 5,150 kilometers and was captured
   making nearly a complete orbit around its ringed parent planet.
   Saturn's first known natural satellite, Titan was discovered in 1655 by
   Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, in contrast with several newly
   discovered moons announced in 2019. The trail on the far right belongs
   to Iapetus, Saturn's third largest moon. The radius of painted Iapetus'
   orbit is so large that only a portion of it was captured here. Saturn
   leads Jupiter across the night sky this month, rising soon after sunset
   toward the southeast, and remaining visible until dawn.

                      Tomorrow's picture: through orion
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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