Discovery of Calypso

Calypso is a small, irregularly shaped moon of Saturn, about twenty kilometres across, discovered in 1980 by astronomers using ground-based telescopes. It shares the orbit of the larger moon Tethys and sits at a stable gravitational point about sixty degrees behind it, while another small moon, Telesto, occupies the point ahead, so that Calypso is described as a Trojan moon. Images from the Cassini spacecraft revealed that its surface is smooth and probably covered with fine icy material. It is named after the nymph Calypso of Greek mythology, who held Odysseus on her island for years in Homer's Odyssey.

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