Discovery of Helene

Helene is a small, irregular moon of Saturn found in 1980 by the French astronomers Pierre Laques and Jean Lecacheux using ground-based telescopes. It shares the orbit of the larger moon Dione and sits near a stable gravitational point about sixty degrees ahead of it, which makes it a Trojan moon in the same sense as the asteroids that accompany Jupiter. Close images from the Cassini spacecraft later showed a surface that is smoother than expected, apparently covered in fine material. The name comes from Helen of Troy, the figure of Greek myth, and fits the Trojan theme.

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