Rhea
Rhea could mean:
Celestial body
- Rhea (moon), a moon of Saturn
Mythology
- Rhea (mythology), in Greek mythology the sister and wife of Cronos and the mother of many of the other major gods
- Rhea Silvia, in Roman mythology the mother of the twins Romulus and Remus
People
These people have “Rhea” as their family name:
- Caroline Rhea (born 1964), stand-up comedian, television actress and host
- Darrel Rhea, CEO, Cheskin
- James Rhea (1791-1812), US soldier
- La Julia Rhea (1908-1992), US opera singer
These people have it as their given name:
- Rhea Hughes, Philadelphia radio personality
- Rhea Perlman (born 1948), US television actress
- Rhea Ripley (born 1996), ring name of Australian professional wrestler Demi Bennett
- M. Rhea Seddon (born 1947), NASA astronaut
- Rhea Tregebov, Canadian poet and children’s author
Other
- Rhea (moon), a moon of Saturn
- 577 Rhea, asteroid
- Rhea (bird), large flightless birds native to South America
- Rhea County, Tennessee
- Rhea of the Cöos, character in Stephen King’s Dark Tower novels
Written for younger readers
Rhea, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Solar System
Rhea is 1530 km in diameter (the distance from one side to the other through the center). Rhea is relatively large when compared with the moons of other planets in the Solar System.
The surface of Rhea is heavily cratered and has bright wispy markings on its surface. The surface can be divided into two categories. The first area contains craters which are more than 40 km wide, while the second area contains craters smaller than this.
The leading hemisphere is heavily cratered and is the same brightness throughout. As on Callisto, the craters are eroded. On the trailing hemisphere there are bright swaths on a dark background and few visible craters. These bright swaths may be material from ice volcanoes early in Rhea’s history when it was still liquid inside. However, recent observations of Dione, which has the same bright streaks, shows that these are in fact ice cliffs. Therefore, it can be assumed that the bright streaks on the Rhean surface are also ice cliffs. When Cassini does its flyby of Rhea on November 25, 2005, we will know for sure.
One day on Rhea is equal to four and a half days on Earth.
One orbit around Saturn also takes four and a half days. Rhea has synchronous rotation, meaning that it takes the same amount of time for it to complete one orbit as it does to complete one rotation on its axis. This also means that the same side of Rhea always faces Saturn.
One third of Rhea’s mass is rock, found at its core. The rest is water ice.
If you stood on Rhea’s surface, you would weigh less than you would on Pluto — which is about 6% of what you do on Earth.
Rhea is named after a Titaness in Greek mythology. The name was suggested by astromoner William Herschel in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope, in which he suggested the names of the Titans, sisters and brothers of Cronos (the Greek Saturn), be used. Before that, it, Tethys, Dione, and Iapetus were called Sidera Lodoicea (“the stars of Louis”) to honour king Louis XIV.
Rhea was discovered by Giovanni Cassini on December 23, 1672.
de:Wikijunior Sonnensystem/ Saturn/ Rhea
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Rhea” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
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