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Tethys

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Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

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Definition

Tethys is one of the midsized icy satellites of Saturn. Discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1684, it orbits at a distance of 294,700 km (or 4.9 Saturnian radii) from Saturn. Its diameter is 1,060 km. Images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1981 show a variety of terrains, with some ancient, heavily cratered regions including the large Odysseus basin that is over 400 km in diameter and a more recent, remodeled surface with a large canyon, Ithaca Chasma, which is about 1,000 km long and 100 km wide. The density of Tethys is 1.0 g/cm3, which indicates a rather pure water-ice satellite. Two other small satellites, Calypso and Telesto, are located on the same orbit as Tethys.

On Earth, the so-called Tethys ocean separated the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia during the Mesozoic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LESIA – Bâtiment ISO (n°17), Observatoire de Paris – Section de Meudon, 5, Place Jules Janssen, 92195, Meudon, France

    Therese Encrenaz

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  1. Therese Encrenaz
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Correspondence to Therese Encrenaz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Encrenaz, T. (2014). Tethys. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1576-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1576-3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

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