Voyager and the origin of the Saturnian system

A picture for the formation of the Saturnian satellite system is presented in which each of the regular satellites is due to condensation from a concentric system of orbiting gaseous rings shed by the primitive proto-Saturnian cloud, while Titan is probably a captured satellite. Predictions based on a modern Laplacian theory, primarily based on findings from the Pioneer and Voyager missions, are presented. It is shown that the chemistry and mass distribution of the regular satellite systems of Jupiter and Saturn, and the sun's planetary system, can be simultaneously accounted for if all convective parental clouds had a common fraction of supersonic turbulent kinetic energy approximately equal to 5% of the cloud's gravitational potential energy. Predictions of the theory for the Saturnian moons Tethys and Enceladus and the satellites of Uranus and Neptune may be tested by Voyager 2 by the end of the present decade.