Editing Epimetheus

{| cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="margin:25px 0 0 10px; border:3px solid lightsteelblue;width:250px; font-size:90%; font-family:'Arial','Helvetica'; float: right; clear: right;"Template in Orbiter"
!bgcolor="lightsteelblue" colspan="2" align="center" |Epimetheus
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|colspan="2" align="center"|[[Image:Epimetheus021015.jpg|240px]]
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|colspan="2" align="center"|'''Epimetheus in Orbiter 2016 with D3D9 client'''
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!bgcolor="lightsteelblue" colspan="2"|Designation
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|Name||align="right"|Epimetheus
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|width="30%"|Reference body||align="right" width="30%"|Saturn
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!bgcolor="lightsteelblue" colspan="2"|Planetary mean orbits
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|width="30%"|Epoch||align="right" width="50%"|1999.0
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|width="30%"|Semimajor axis (a)||align="right" width="50%"|1.515×10<sup>8</sup> m
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|width="30%"|Eccentricity (e)||align="right" width="30%"|0.0205
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|width="30%"|Inclination (i)||align="right" width="30%"|0.3323155212° <br> (0.0058 radian)
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|width="30%"|Longitude of the ascending node (LAN, ☊)||align="right" width="30%"|335.0026932° <br> (5.8469 radian)
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|width="30%"|Longitude of periapsis (ϖ)||align="right" width="30%"|140.2600682° <br> (2.448 radian)
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|width="30%"|Mean longitude (L)||align="right" width="30%"|32.97372111° <br> (0.5755 radian)
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!bgcolor="lightsteelblue" colspan="2"|Selected physical parameters
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|width="30%"|Mean radius||align="right" width="30%"|115000 m
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|width="30%"|Mass||align="right" width="30%"|5.6×10<sup>17</sup> kg
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|width="30%"|Note||align="right" width="30%"|*Elements given are from Epimetheus.cfg (isaturn.zip)
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'''Epimetheus (Saturn XI, S/1979 S 1)''' is a one of the inner [[natural satellite|moons]] of [[Saturn]]. [[Janus]] was discovered by [[w:Audouin Dollfus|Audouin Dollfus]] on 15 December 1966. [[w:Richard Walker (astronomer)|Richard Walker]] saw what was thought to be the same object three days later since it seemed to haave the same orbit around Saturn. After twelve years, it was realized that there were, in fact, two objects co-orbiting the same region of Saturn's space.

Epimetheus shares the same orbit with [[Janus]]. When Janus is in a slightly smaller orbit than Epimetheus, Janus gets ahead of Epimetheus and over time catches up from behind. As Epimetheus pulls Janus toward it, Janus speeds up and Epimetheus slows down slightly, and they 'swap orbits'. Then the process reverses. This cycle occurs about every four years. 

== Epimetheus in Orbiter ==
Epimetheus was introduced to Orbiter with the release of ''isaturn.zip'' in October 2002. 

{|class="wikitable sortable” style="text-align: center"
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|colspan="8"|<center>'''Orbiter versions and add-ons which include Epimetheus'''</center>
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!Add-on!!Source!!Version!!Author!!Type!!Release Date!!Compatibility!!Wiki article
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|[https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=&Name=&FileName=isaturn.zip&Author=&CatID=root Inner Moons of Saturn]||AVSIM||||Rolf Keibel||Scenery||15 October 2002||||
|}

== See also ==
[[w:Epimetheus (moon)|Epimetheus]] at [[w:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]]

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
PIA09813 Epimetheus S. polar region.jpg|<center>Epimetheus as seen by the [[w:Cassini-Huygens|Cassini]] spacecraft in December 2007,<br>from Wikimedia Commons</center>
Epimetheus-Janus Orbit.png|<center>Illustration of the 'horseshoe' orbits of Epimetheus and Janus showing their co-orbiting. Saturn's size and orbital radius are close to scale, but, the inner to outer distance is exaggerrated about 500× and the sizes of the moons are exaggerated about 50 times.<br>From Wikimedia Commons
</gallery>

{{SaturnSat}}
{{SolarSystem}}

[[Category:Articles]]
[[Category:Celestial bodies]]
[[Category:Natural satellites]]

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