Universe & space

Discovery of Phoebe

16 August 1898

Phoebe is an irregular moon of Saturn, discovered by the American astronomer William Henry Pickering from photographic plates taken at Harvard's observatory station in Peru, and it was the first moon in the Solar System to be found using photography. It orbits far from Saturn in the opposite direction to the planet's rotation, which suggests that it was captured and may have originated in the outer Solar System. The Cassini spacecraft flew past in 2004 and found a dark, cratered, ice-rich body. Phoebe is the source of a huge faint ring of dust around Saturn, and material from it is thought to have darkened one side of the moon Iapetus.

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This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.