TELESTO (MOON)

'Telesto' , Greek ''Τελεστώ)'' is a moon of Saturn. It was discovered by Smith, Reitsema, Larson and Fountain in 1980 from ground-based observations, and was provisionally designated 'S/1980 S 13'^[3]. In the following months, several other apparitions were observed: S/1980 S 24^[4], S/1980 S 33^[5], and S/1981 S 1^[6].
In 1983 it was officially named after Telesto of Greek mythology^[7]. It is also designated as 'Saturn XIII' or 'Tethys B'.
Telesto is co-orbital with Tethys, residing in Tethys' leading Lagrangian point (L₄). This relationship was first identified by Seidelmann ''et al.''^[8] The moon Calypso also resides in the other (trailing) lagrangian point of Tethys, 60 degrees in the other direction from Tethys.
The ''Cassini'' probe performed a distant flyby of Telesto on October 11, 2005. The resulting images show that its surface is surprisingly smooth, devoid of small impact craters.

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References

1. NASA Celestia
2. ''Physical Characteristics and Possible Accretionary Origins for Saturn's Small Satellites'', Porco, C. C.; ''et al.'', , , Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 2006
3. IAUC 3466: ''Satellites of Saturn'' 1980 April 10 (discovery)
4. IAUC 3484: ''Satellites of Saturn'' 1980 June 6
5. IAUC 3605: ''Satellites of Saturn'' 1981 May 18
6. IAUC 3593: ''Satellites of Saturn'' 1981 April 16
7. Transactions of the International Astronomical Union, Vol. XVIIIA, 1982 (confirms Janus, names Epimetheus, Telesto, Calypso) (mentioned in IAUC 3872: ''Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn'', 1983 September 30)
8. Seidelmann, P. K.; Harrington, R. S.; Pascu, D.; Baum, W. A.; Currie, D. G.; Westphal, J. A.; and Danielson, G. E.; ''Saturn Satellite Observations and Orbits from the 1980 Ring Plane Crossing'', Icarus, Vol. 47 (August 1981), pp. 282–287

External links

★ Telesto Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration

★ The Planetary Society: Telesto
''... | Enceladus | 'Telesto', Tethys and Calypso | Polydeuces, Dione and Helene | ...''