S/2004 S 3

S/2004 S 3 is the provisional designation of an object seen orbiting Saturn just beyond the outer strand of the F ring on June 21, 2004. It was discovered by the Cassini Imaging Science Team in images taken by the Cassini–Huygens probe on June 21, 2004^[4] and announced on September 9, 2004.^[5]

Despite later attempts to recover it, it has not been reliably sighted since. Notably, an imaging sequence covering an entire orbital period at 4 km resolution taken on November 15, 2004 failed to recover the object. This suggests that it was a temporary clump of material that had disappeared by that time.^[2]

Another object, S/2004 S 4, was sighted nearby 5 hours later, but this time just inside the F Ring. Because of the differing localisation the second object was given a fresh designation, although their interpretation as a single object on a F-ring crossing orbit is also possible.^[5] Such an object might also be orbiting at a slightly different inclination to the F ring, thereby not actually passing through the ring material despite being seen both radially inward and outward of it.

If a solid object after all, S/2004 S 3 would be 3–5 km in diameter based on brightness, and might be a shepherd satellite for the outer edge of Saturn's F ring.

References

Explanatory

Citations

Sources

• "Cassini Imaging Science Team". Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS. http://ciclops.org/team/iss_team.php. Retrieved 2012-01-01. 
• Green, Daniel W. E. (September 9, 2004). "S/2004 S 3, S/2004 S 4, and R/2004 S 1" (discovery). IAU Circular 8401. http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/08400/08401.html. Retrieved 2012-01-01. 
• Green, Daniel W. E. (November 8, 2004). "Satellites and Rings of Saturn". IAU Circular 8432. http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/08400/08432.html. Retrieved 2012-01-01.  (claiming recovery of S/2004 S 3 on October 17, 2004 in conflict with the later Spitale Jacobson et al. 2006)
• Martinez, Carolina; Ormrod, Gill; Finn, Heidi (September 9, 2004). "Cassini Discovers Ring and One, Possibly Two, Objects at Saturn". jpl.nasa.gov. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2004-222. Retrieved 2012-01-01. 
• Spitale, J. N.; Jacobson, R. A.; Porco, C. C.; Owen, W. M., Jr. (2006). "The orbits of Saturn's small satellites derived from combined historic and Cassini imaging observations". The Astronomical Journal 132 (2): 692–710. Bibcode 2006AJ....132..692S. doi:10.1086/505206.  edit

External links

• Cassini–Huygens press release about discoveries around the F ring in 2004
• Cassini–Huygens Multimedia: The Clump/Moon Mystery September 5, 2005 (images of the clumps and/or moons seen around the F ring by Cassini cameras)