Bleriot (or Blériot), is the informal name for a
propeller moonlet
Saturn has the most extensive and complex ring system of any planet in the Solar System. The rings consist of particles in orbit around the planet made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material. Particles range from ...
within
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
's
A Ring
Saturn has the most extensive and complex ring system of any planet in the Solar System. The rings consist of particles in orbit around the planet made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material. Particles range fro ...
.
It is about across, making it the largest of these propeller
moonlets. It has been tracked by the
''Cassini'' Imaging Team since 2005.
Bleriot has been subject to some scientific studies due to its large size and has helped scientists improve their understanding the interactions between objects within Saturn's rings.
The orbit of Bleriot has some anomalies such as that it sometimes is much further behind or ahead than is predicted to be.
The name comes from French aviator
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot ( , also , ; 1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of t ...
, who was the first person to fly across the
English Channel
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
.
Due to its small size, Bleriot cannot be directly imaged, it can only be noticed by the "propeller-shaped" disturbances it creates around it.
See also
*
Peggy (moonlet)
*
S/2009 S 1
S/2009 S 1 is a Rings of Saturn#Propeller_moonlets, moonlet embedded in the outer part of Saturn's Rings of Saturn#B Ring, B Ring, orbiting away from the planet. The moonlet was discovered by the Cassini–Huygens, ''Cassini'' Imaging Team durin ...
References
Moons of Saturn
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