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April 14, 2014
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has documented the formation of a smallicy object within the rings of Saturn that may be a new moon, and mayalso provide clues to the formation of the planet's known moons.
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NASA Cassini images may reveal birth of a Saturn moon
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute [Click to enlarge image]
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The disturbance visible at the outer edge of Saturn's A ring in this image fromNASA's Cassini spacecraft could be caused by an object replaying the birthprocess of icy moons.
ASA's Cassini spacecraft has documented the formation of a small icyobject within the rings of Saturn that may be a new moon, and mayalso provide clues to the formation of the planet's known moons.
Images taken with Cassini's narrow angle camera onApril 15, 2013, show disturbances at the very edge ofSaturn's A ring -- the outermost of the planet's large,bright rings. One of these disturbances is an arc about20 percent brighter than its surroundings, 750 miles(1,200 kilometers) long and 6 miles (10 kilometers)wide. Scientists also found unusual protuberances inthe usually smooth profile at the ring's edge. Scientistsbelieve the arc and protuberances are caused by thegravitational effects of a nearby object. Details of theobservations were published online today (April 14,2014) by the journal Icarus.
The object is not expected to grow any larger, andmay even be falling apart. But the process of itsformation and outward movement aids in ourunderstanding of how Saturn's icy moons, includingthe cloud-wrapped Titan and ocean-holding Enceladus,
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may have formed in more massive rings long ago. Italso provides insight into how Earth and other planetsin our solar system may have formed and migratedaway from our star, the sun.
"We have not seen anything like this before," said Carl Murray of Queen MaryUniversity of London, the report's lead author. "We may be looking at the act of birth,where this object is just leaving the rings and heading off to be a moon in its ownright."
The object, informally named Peggy, is too small to be seen in images so far.Scientists estimate it is probably no more than about a half mile (about a kilometer) indiameter. Saturn's icy moons range in size depending on their proximity to the planet -- the farther from the planet, the larger. And many of Saturn's moons are composedprimarily of ice, as are the particles that form Saturn's rings. Based on these facts,and other indicators, researchers recently proposed that the icy moons formed fromring particles and then moved outward, away from the planet, merging with othermoons on the way.
"Witnessing the possible birth of a tiny moon is an exciting, unexpected event," saidCassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory inPasadena, Calif. According to Spilker, Cassini's orbit will move closer to the outeredge of the A ring in late 2016 and provide an opportunity to study Peggy in moredetail and perhaps even image it.
It is possible the process of moon formation in Saturn's rings has ended with Peggy,as Saturn's rings now are, in all likelihood, too depleted to make more moons.Because they may not observe this process again, Murray and his colleagues arewringing from the observations all they can learn.
"The theory holds that Saturn long ago had a much more massive ring system capableof giving birth to larger moons," Murray said. "As the moons formed near the edge,they depleted the rings and evolved, so the ones that formed earliest are the largestand the farthest out."
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NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "NASA Cassini images may reveal birth of aSaturn moon." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 April 2014.<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140414180358.htm>.
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and the farthest out."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European SpaceAgency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute ofTechnology, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate inWashington.
To view an image of the Saturn ring disturbance attributed to the new moon, visit:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18078
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
1. Carl D. Murray, Nicholas J. Cooper, Gareth A. Williams, Nicholas O. Attree, JeffreyS. Boyer. The discovery and dynamical evolution of an object at the outeredge of Saturn’s A ring. Icarus, 2014; DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.03.024
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