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Orbit Swapping - Epimetheus & Janus
Jason
post Jul 12 2005, 11:40 AM
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The orbits of these two moonlets vary in distance from Saturn by only 50km - less than the radius of either, so they nominally share an orbit.
The inner moon (Epimetheus?) is slowly catching up with the outer (Janus?) and I understand that in January/February next year they are due to pass one another, and because of their gravitational interaction, to swap positions.
(Epimetheus speeds up relative to Janus and moves to a higher orbit, and Janus does the reverse)
Does anyone know if Cassini will be in a position to take some images which could be made into a movie of the phenomenon? - would be awesome to see the process actually happening.......
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