Saturn Moon’s Orbit May Be Slowed by Collisions With Ring
<i> Associated Press</i>
NEW YORK —
One of Saturn’s moons may collide periodically with one of the planet’s rings, which might explain why the moon was found to be lagging behind its expected position in orbit, scientists say.
Recent observations of the moon, Prometheus, found it lagging about 20 degrees behind the place where scientists expected it to be, researchers said.
By using a computer model, the scientist concluded that Prometheus probably collided with one of Saturn’s rings in 1994 and may do so about once every 19 years.
That could explain the lag in the orbit, researchers from England and Brazil report in the March 14 issue of the journal Nature.
