http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~cjhamil/SolarSystem/prometheus.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)Saturn XVI - 1980S27
Prometheus [pra-MEE-thee-us] is the third of Saturn's known satellites. It was discovered from photographs taken by Voyager during its encounter with Saturn by S. Collins and others. Prometheus acts as a shepherd satellite for the inner edge of Saturn's F Ring. Prometheus is extremely elongated about 145x85x62 kilometers in diameter. It has a number of ridges and valleys on its northern side. Several craters about 20 km in diameter are visible, but it appears to be less cratered than its nearby neighbors Pandora, Janus and Epimetheus. The density of Prometheus has been estimated to be quite low indicating that is a porous icy body; however, there is a lot of uncertainty in these values.
Discovered by ........................... S. Collins & others Date of discovery ...................................... 1980 Mass (kg) .......................................... 2.7e+17* Mass (Earth = 1) ................................. 4.5181e-08 Radius (km) .................................. 72.5x42.5x32.5 Radius (Earth = 1) ............................... 1.1367e-02 Mean density (gm/cm^3) ................................. 0.7* Mean distance from Saturn (km) ...................... 139,350 Rotational period (days) .................................. ? Orbital period (days) ................................ 0.6130 Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) ........................ 16.54 Orbital eccentricity .................................. 0.003 Orbital inclination ..................................... 0.0° Escape velocity (km/sec) ............................. 0.0223 Visual geometric albedo ................................. 0.6 Magnitude (Vo) ......................................... 15.8
Prometheus
(GIF, 16K)
This image of Prometheus was acquired by the Voyager 2 spacecraft on
August 25, 1981.
(Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton, Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Shaded Relief Map of Prometheus
(GIF,
caption)
This image is a shaded relief map of Prometheus, the inner F Ring
Shepherd satellite of Saturn. As with all maps, it is the cartographer's
interpretation and not all features are necessarily certain given the
limited data available - this interpretation stretches the data as far
as is feasible. (Courtesy Phil Stooke).
Cylindrical Map of Prometheus
(GIF,
caption)
This image is a shaded relief map of Prometheus, the inner F Ring
Shepherd satellite of Saturn. It is the same map as the above image, but
reprojected to the Simple Cylindrical projection. As with all maps, it
is the cartographer's interpretation and not all features are necessarily
certain given the limited data available - this interpretation stretches
the data as far as is feasible.
(Courtesy Phil Stooke).
