Prometheus (moon)

Prometheus is an inner satellite of Saturn. It was discovered in 1980 CE from photos taken by the Voyager 1 probe, and was provisionally designated S/1980 S 27.

In late 1985 it was officially named after Prometheus, a Titan in Greek mythology. It is also designated Saturn XVI.

This small moon is extremely elongated, measuring about 136 by 79 by 59 km, and it has a volume of ≈ 340,000 km3. It has several ridges and valleys and a number of impact craters of about 20 km diameter, but it is less cratered than nearby Pandora, Epimetheus and Janus. The Promethean gravitational field creates kinks and knots in the F Ring as the moon 'steals' material from it. The orbit of Prometheus is chaotic, as a consequence of a series of four 121:118 mean motion resonances with Pandora. Approximately every 6.2 Terran years the periapsis of Pandora lines up with the apoapsis of Prometheus and the moons approach to within about 1400 km. Prometheus is itself a significant perturber of Atlas, with which it is in a 53:54 mean longitude resonance.

Prometheus is a very porous ice body with a rocky core. Because of this, Prometheus has no physical structures. However Prometheus Gas & Liquids, Inc. constructed astation nearby in 2100 OTT to exploit its resources. That company became part of Enroe in 2258.

