Two Full Moons This Month


An Icy Nest Of Space Eggs. Methone is actually only one member of an icy nest of Space eggs, which also includes the very strange and smooth moons of Saturn, Pallene and Aegaeon. Aegaeon is a very, very small moonlet that also twirls around between Mimas and Enceladus. Like Methone, Aegaeon displays a mysteriously unblemished surface. Earlier infrared data did not have sufficient resolution to separate MK 2 from Makemake's veiling glare. The astronomers' reanalysis, however, based on the more recent HST observations, indicates that much of the warmer surface spotted earlier in infrared light may simply be the dark surface of the companion MK 2. Several possibilities could provide an answer as to why the moon would have charcoal-black surface patches, even though it is circling a dwarf planet that is as bright as freshly fallen snow. One theory that has been suggested proposes that, unlike larger objects such as Makemake, its own little companion moon is so small that it cannot gravitationally keep a grip onto a bright and icy crust, which then sublimates, undergoing a sea-change from solid to gas under the melting influence of warming sunlight. This would make the little moon akin to comets and other KBOs, many of which are well-coated with very dark material.