Saturn's moon, Methone - potentially artificial?

[NERVAfan]

Saturn's moon, Methone, is very round and smooth (egg-shaped) despite being only 3km, when most bodies of that size (or even much larger) are very lumpy. It also lacks craters.

Apparently the explanation for this is that it's made of "ice fluff". But that's boring. So, is there anything we actually know about this moon that would prohibit it being a big, abandoned egg-shaped alien spaceship with a little bit of ice on top that has accumulated from the rings?

(Yes, I know this is quite unlikely...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methone_%28moon%29

[Nibb31]

If it's egg shaped, then Occam's Razor dictates that it's more likely an egg laid there by a giant space chicken.

[Nuke]

just because something is weird doesn't mean we need to jump to the conclusion of aliens.

if it does turn out to be a giant chicken, dibs on the white meat.

[Tommygun]

That's no moon.....It's a space station!

Well it does answer that age old question: Which came first; the chicken or the egg.....

[FanaticalFighter]

It does look quite a regular shape, in a circular, equitorial orbit around Saturn. It's probably nothing, but it may just be a space station or something from super advanced alien life forms or something. Maybe they came from Saturn itself xD...

[Idobox]

We don't know much about this moon, so we can't be sure of anything.

That being said, observations fit very well with the idea of that moon being relatively fluid because of tidal heating.

[KvickFlygarn87]

We need to send stuff there now! Time to go protest on the US's budget!

[Nibb31]

We need to send stuff there now! Time to go protest on the US's budget!

We already have Cassini there.

[The_Rebel_Flagship]

It indeed does look weird. You would think a moon that size wouldn't be so flawlessly shaped.

[Nibb31]

It is under severe gravitational stress, which explains the shape. In fact, it looks like pretty much like what a drop of water would look like if it was stabilized in an orbit around a gas giant.

[Sirrobert]

Meh, if a Gigantic cloud of Alcohol can be natural, than I doubt a smooth surface is that weird.

[DoctorCruz]

Saturn's moon, Methone, is very round and smooth (egg-shaped) despite being only 3km, when most bodies of that size (or even much larger) are very lumpy. It also lacks craters.

Apparently the explanation for this is that it's made of "ice fluff". But that's boring. So, is there anything we actually know about this moon that would prohibit it being a big, abandoned egg-shaped alien spaceship with a little bit of ice on top that has accumulated from the rings?

(Yes, I know this is quite unlikely...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methone_%28moon%29

I actually had no idea moons could be that small. It's also a very weird shape. This calls for more investigation I think!

[Nuke]

Meh, if a Gigantic cloud of Alcohol can be natural, than I doubt a smooth surface is that weird.

yay! space booze!

[Dkmdlb]

That thing is gorgeous. It looks like a pebble at the river.

[xenomorph555]

If it is egg shaped it can only be one thing, a kraken egg, waiting to hatch another giant space demon to ruin our crafts. Either that or mega ultra chicken

[Tommygun]

I couldn't stop myself, Easter is just two days away.

[Brotoro]

I'm not saying it's not aliens...

But it's not aliens.

[Scotius]

yay! space booze!

You would have to do much condensing and filtering to get full glass

[KASASpace]

Well, at what distance was that shot taken?

Because, and even from fairly close, the Moon looks smooth and perfectly spherical (from down here)

[Sirrobert]

You would have to do much condensing and filtering to get full glass

Also it's methane, not ethane.

Aperently it tastes like strawberries though

[pxi]

So, is there anything we actually know about this moon that would prohibit it being a big, abandoned egg-shaped alien spaceship with a little bit of ice on top that has accumulated from the rings?

Well, there are those that suppose that Iapetus is also an abandoned alien spacecraft, albeit bigger, and not egg-shaped.

On top of this, arguments have been made for Phobos as well. All of these scenarios seem unlikely to me. Very unlikely.

But why spacecraft? It is after all egg-shaped. Why could it not be a dragon egg?

Is there anything we know about this moon that prohibits it being a dragon egg?

[KASASpace]

Is there anything we know about this moon that prohibits it being a dragon egg?

Or a cosmic "Easter egg"?

[NovaSilisko]

Well, at what distance was that shot taken?

Because, and even from fairly close, the Moon looks smooth and perfectly spherical (from down here)

Yes, very much this. Methone is about 1.6 km in diameter (varies due to its shape), and the image was taken from 4,000 km away.

It's very unusually round for its size though. Likely due to a thick layer of dust on its surface - it orbits very near to the rings and has very little gravity, thus a lot of dust hits it and just sort of sticks til you get this huge ball of fluff that we see today. Saturn's gravity then distorts this fluff into an oblong shape.

Edited April 19, 2014 by NovaSilisko

[vetrox]

Still has nothing on uranus's moon, miranda.

Instead of incredibly smooth, its the opposite and looks like the space kraken has tried mating with it...maybe methone is the egg from that particular couple.

[NERVAfan]

I don't actually think it is a spacecraft.

Just think it's an interesting SF concept.