Back S/2004 S 3 Arabic S/2004 S 3 Bulgarian S/2004 S 3 Breton S/2004 S 3 Catalan S/2004 S 3 CDO S/2004 S 3 Czech S/2004 S 3 Danish S/2004 S 3 Greek S/2004 S 3 Esperanto S/2004 S 3 Spanish
 Discovery image of S/2004 S 3 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | CICLOPS Team [1] |
| Discovery date | June 21, 2004 |
| Orbital characteristics [2][3][4] | |
| 140,100–140,600 km | |
| Eccentricity | < 0.002 [a] |
| 0.62 d | |
| Inclination | close to zero |
| Satellite of | Saturn |
| Group | F Ring |
| Physical characteristics | |
| ~2 km | |
| probably synchronous | |
| unknown | |
| Albedo | unknown |
S/2004 S 3 is the provisional designation of an object seen orbiting Saturn just beyond the outer strand of the F ring on June 21, 2004. It was discovered by the Cassini Imaging Science Team Archived 2011-05-20 at the Wayback Machine in images taken by the Cassini–Huygens probe on June 21, 2004[4] and announced on September 9, 2004.[5]
Despite later attempts to recover it, it has not been reliably sighted since. Notably, an imaging sequence covering an entire orbital period at 4 km resolution taken on November 15, 2004 failed to recover the object. The sequence should have been easily capable of detecting a moon of similar size, suggesting it to simply be a transient clump. An approximate linkage could be made of S/2004 S 3 to S/2004 S 4, and matched to two other detected clumps on other dates, but considering its non-detection in November, their relation is probably coincidental.[2]
Another object, S/2004 S 4, was sighted nearby 5 hours later, but this time just inside the F Ring. Because of the differing localisation the second object was given a fresh designation, although their interpretation as a single object on a F-ring crossing orbit is also possible.[5] Such an object might also be orbiting at a slightly different inclination to the F ring, thereby not actually passing through the ring material despite being seen both radially inward and outward of it.
If a solid object after all, S/2004 S 3 would be 3–5 km in diameter based on brightness, and might be a shepherd satellite for the outer edge of Saturn's F ring.
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