Moon of Saturn
Dione
A moon that sets the rhythm for Enceladus.
Dione orbits Saturn every 2.7 days at roughly the same distance our Moon orbits Earth. It holds Enceladus in a 2:1 resonance and shares its orbit with two tiny moons, Helene and Polydeuces. Like Earth's Moon, it keeps one face toward its planet.
How it moves
- Dione orbits Saturn every 2.737 days at about 377,400 km.
- Enceladus completes exactly two orbits for each one of Dione.
- Helene orbits 60 degrees ahead of Dione and Polydeuces 60 degrees behind, at Lagrange points.
- Dione is tidally locked to Saturn.
Facts
- Mean radius
- 561.4 km
- Mass
- 1.100e+21 kg
- Surface gravity
- 0.232 m/s²
- Rotation period
- 65.686 hours
- Orbital period
- 2.737 days
- Average orbital distance
- 377,400 km
- Eccentricity
- 0.0022
- Discovered
- March 21, 1684, by Giovanni Domenico Cassini
Two small moons, Helene and Polydeuces, share Dione's orbit at its Lagrange points.
Sources: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov, ssd.jpl.nasa.gov, ssd.jpl.nasa.gov