Icy Satellites: Geological Evolution and Surface Processes

The sizes of the Saturnian icy satellites range from ~ 1;500 km in diameter (Rhea) to ~20km (Calypso), and even smaller ‘rocks' of only a kilometer in diameter are common in the system. All these bodies exhibit remarkable, unique features and unexpected diversity. In this chapter, we will mostly focus on the ‘medium-sized icy objects' Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus, Phoebe and Hyperion, and consider small objects only where appropriate, whereas Titan and Enceladus will be described in separate chapters. Mimas and Tethys show impact craters caused by bodies that were almost large enough to break them apart. Iapetus is unique in the Saturnian system because of its extreme global brightness dichotomy. Tectonic activity varies widely — from inactive Mimas through extensional terrains on Rhea and Dione to the current cryovolcanic eruptions on Enceladus — and is not necessarily correlated with predicted tidal stresses. Likely sources of stress include impacts, despinning, reorientation and volume changes. Accretion of dark material originating from outside the Saturnian system may explain the surface contamination that prevails in the whole satellite system, while coating by Saturn's E-ring particles brightens the inner satellites.