May 19, 2002
Galaxies were colliding long before you were born, and they will keep colliding long after us all.
Saturn's Moon Tethys
Birthday · May 19, 2002
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APOD published May 19, 2002. Credit: (digital w/colortable): Calvin J. Hamilton. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Tethys is one of the larger and closer moons of Saturn. It was visited by both Voyager spacecraft - Voyager 1 in November 1980 and by Voyager 2 in August 1981. Tethys is now known to be composed almost completely of water ice. Tethys shows a large impact crater that nearly circles the planet. That the impact that caused this crater did not disrupt the moon is taken as evidence that Tethys was not completely frozen in its past. Two smaller moons, Telesto and Calypso, orbit Saturn just ahead of and behind Tethys. Giovanni Cassini discovered Tethys in 1684. In 1997, NASA launched a spacecraft named Cassini to Saturn that will arrive in 2004.
Image credit: (digital w/colortable): Calvin J. Hamilton