COMPOSED ALMOST ENTIRELY OF WATER ICE,
Tethys is one of the most reflective objects in the Solar System, having been polished by ice particles in
Saturn's rings. As the moon is tidally locked, the leading face is brighter due to this polishing.
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| Tethys |
Apart from impact craters, Tethys features
a huge chasm, 100km/62mi wide and 3km/19mi deep, that runs nearly three quarters of the way around the moon, 2,000km/1,243mi in length. This is caused by freezing liquids and expanding as the core cooled, cracking the surface.
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| Diameter comparison of the Saturnian moon Tethys, Moon, and Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS/Tom Reding |
Like most of
Saturn's major moons, it was created from the cloud of material left in orbit after
Saturn formed.
With a mean radius of 531.1 ± 0.6 km and a mass of 6.1745 ×1020 kg, Tethys is equivalent in size to 0.083 Earths and 0.000103 times as massive. Its size and mass also mean that it is the 16th-largest moon in the Solar System, and more massive than all known moons smaller than itself combined. At an average distance (semi-major axis) of 294,619 km, Tethys is the third furthest large moon from Saturn and the 13th most distant moon over all.
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