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NASA Cassini Images May Reveal Birth of New Saturn Moon


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-- WITH PHOTO -- TO NATIONAL, AND SCIENCE EDITORS:

NASA Cassini Images May Reveal Birth of New Saturn Moon

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Cassini

spacecraft has documented the formation of a small icy object within

the rings of Saturn that may be a new moon, and may also provide clues

to the formation of the planet's known moons.

Images taken with Cassini's narrow angle camera on April 15, 2013 show

disturbances at the very edge of Saturn's A ring -- the outermost of

the planet's large, bright rings. One of these disturbances is an arc

about 20 percent brighter than its surroundings, 750 miles (1,200

kilometers) long and 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide. Scientists also

found unusual protuberances in the usually smooth profile at the

ring's edge. Scientists believe the arc and protuberances are caused

by the gravitational effects of a nearby object. Details of the

observations were published online today (April 14, 2014) by the

journal Icarus.

The object is not expected to grow any larger, and may even be falling

apart. But the process of its formation and outward movement aids in

our understanding of how Saturn's icy moons, including the

cloud-wrapped Titan and ocean-holding Enceladus, may have formed in

more massive rings long ago. It also provides insight into how Earth

and other planets in our solar system may have formed and migrated

away from our star, the sun.

"We have not seen anything like this before," said Carl Murray of

Queen Mary University of London, and 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 own right."

The object, informally named Peggy, is too small to see in images so

far. Scientists estimate it is probably no more than about a half mile

in diameter. 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 comprised primarily 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

from ring particles and then moved outward, away from the planet,

merging with other moons on the way.

"Witnessing the possible birth of a tiny moon is an exciting,

unexpected event," said Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker, of

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. According

to Spilker, Cassini's orbit will move closer to the outer edge of the

A ring in late 2016 and provide an opportunity to study Peggy in more

detail 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 are wringing from the observations

all they can learn.

"The theory holds that Saturn long ago had a much more massive ring

system capable of 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 largest and the farthest out."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the

European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of

the California Institute of Technology, manages the mission for NASA's

Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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

For more information about Cassini, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO

SOURCE NASA

-0- 04/14/2014

/CONTACT: Dwayne Brown, Headquarters, Washington, 202-358-1726, dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov; or Jane Platt, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., 818-354-0880, jane.platt@jpl.nasa.gov

/Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO

PRN Photo Desk photodesk@prnewswire.com

/Web Site: http://www.nasa.gov

CO: NASA

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