S/2004 S 4

S/2004 S 4

Discovery
Discovered by	CICLOPS Team
Discovery date	June 21, 2004
Orbital characteristics
Semi-major axis	~140,100 km
Eccentricity	unknown, small
Orbital period	~0.618 d
Inclination	unknown, small
Satellite of	Saturn
Physical characteristics
Mean radius	1.5–2.5 km
Rotation period	probably synchronous
Axial tilt	unknown
Albedo	unknown

S/2004 S 4 is the provisional designation of an unconfirmed object seen orbiting Saturn within the inner strand of the F ring on June 21, 2004. It was spotted while J. N. Spitale was trying to confirm the orbit of another provisional object, S/2004 S 3 that was seen 5 hours earlier just exterior to the F ring. The announcement was made on September 9, 2004.

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. This suggests that it was a temporary clump of material that had disappeared by that time.

An interpretation where S3 and S4 are or were a single object on a F-ring crossing orbit is also possible. 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 4 would be 3–5 km in diameter based on brightness.

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