Name________________________________

Background

Astronomers have identified 82 moons

orbiting the planet of Saturn. Only fifty-three
of these moons have been confirmed and
officially named. The animation to the right
shows some of the larger moons orbiting at
10,000x normal speed. A more detailed
version of this simulation can be viewed by
clicking on this YouTube video. You will be
analyzing the orbits of some of the larger
moons to better understand Kepler’s Laws of
Motion.

Saturn’s Largest Moons

Name Diameter (km) Eccentricity Orbital period (days) Semi-major axis (km)

Titan 5149 0.0288 15.95 1221870

Rhea 1527 0.0013 4.52 527108

Iapetus 1470 0.0277 79.32 3560820

Dione 1123 0.0022 2.74 377396

Tethys 1062 0.0001 1.89 294619

Enceladus 504 0.0047 1.37 237948

Mimas 396 0.0196 0.94 185539

Hyperion 270 0.1230 21.28 1481009

1. Use the evidence above to complete the questions in the table below.

Evidence What patterns do you observe?

Be sure to use data from the figure to support your answer

Animation or video of
Saturn’s moons

Data on Saturn’s largest

moons

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