Phoebe, Now a Planet-Like World
Okay, Pheobe was a known moon of Saturn. But scientists recently have found that–due to the Cassini mission–that Pheobe is very similar to the planetismals that created the planets. The data suggests that Phoebe was originally formed within the first 3 million years of the life of the solar system and probably started off in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune’s orbit and was somehow captured by Saturn’s gravity later on. Also, scientists believe that Phoebe was hot early in its history and has since cooled off which they believe mean that the moon could have hosted liquid water at one point, which explains the water-rich material on its surface detected by Cassini. Findings like this give you hope for finding “life” on planets within our solar system. We have so much to learn about the worlds around us and one cannot help but be hopeful that the breakthrough will come sometime soon.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20120426.html
davidbedardastro 