NASA Cassini Spacecraft Spots New Moon on Edge of Saturn’s Rings

Just a few weeks ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which has been circling Saturn since 2004, discovered the first-ever asteroid-like object with rings. The spacecraft recently sent back images of a new moon forming on Saturn's outer rings.

The images were taken earlier today and revealed the formation of a small icy object within the outer rings of Saturn; NASA scientists believe it is a new moon that has caused large disturbances on Saturn's rings. Located on Saturn's A ring, "Peggy" is expected to be an icy moon that will not grow any larger.

Cassini's photos from April of 2013 Peggy appears as a fuzzy blob, and the spacecraft isn't expected to get a closer view until 2016 when it is schedule to fly closer to Saturn's A ring. By that time, NASA scientists might officially acknowledge Peggy as Saturn's 54^th moon.

"We have not seen anything like this before," astronomer Carl Murray, the lead author, said in this NPR article. "We may be looking at the act of birth, where this object is leaving the rings and heading off to be a moon in its own right," he added. For the time being, he named the potential moon after this mother-in-law.

However, recent research proposes that Saturn's icy moons formed from its ring particles and then moved away from the planet. Peggy's formation and outward movement suggests that this proposition is true, and it could provide insight on how Saturn's other icy moons - Titan and Enceladus - formed.

The Cassini Solstice Mission consists of the Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe. Combined, the three-axis stabilized spacecraft is expected to conduct 27 scientific investigations during its time spent orbiting Saturn. The orbiter and probe are powered with three Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs), which make the entire mission possible.

The findings of this discovery were published in the journal Icarus and can be found here. This study could make history, as Peggy could potentially be the last moon formation that Saturn's rings are capable of producing.