- Atlas is an inner satellite of Saturn. It was discovered by Richard Terrile in 1980 from Voyager photos.
- It is named after Atlas of Greek Mythology.
- If you look at Atlas closeup, it looks like a Flying Saucer!
- It is only 20 miles across which is shorter than the distance from Sacred Heart Catholic School to Jacksonville Airport (24 miles).
- Atlas is 1,429.276 million kilometers away from the sun.
- The mass of the moon is [0.46+ - 0.45] x10 exp15 kg[2].
- Atlas gravity is so small compared to Earth's gravity. It is only 0.002-0.0020 m/s2 while Earths is 9.807 m/s2.
- The length of a year is measured by how much time it takes for it to complete its orbit. It completes its orbit around Saturn in 14 hours. Saturn completes its orbit around the sun in 29 Earth years.
- The time of one rotation is called synchronous which means the rotation is slowly decreasing and it is so slow that the same side is always facing Saturn.
- The temperature is very cold and estimated at 81 Kelvin. That's -313 Fahrenheit.
- The terrain is rocky and pure ice.
- There is no atmosphere in Atlas. The only known satellite in the Solar System with an atmosphere is Titan.
Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(moon) http://www.webconversiononline.com/mobile/planetary-distance-calculator.aspx?from=moon&to=atlas
https://phys.org/news/2014-06-saturn-moon-atlas-gas-giant.html http://solarviews.com/eng/atlas.htm