Madame Butterfly 0 Posted May 11, 2005 Cassini Spies New Moon in Saturn's Ring PASADENA, Calif. (May 10) - The international Cassini spacecraft has spied a tiny new moon hidden in a gap in Saturn's outer ring, scientists reported Tuesday. The moon was spotted earlier this month orbiting in the center of the Keeler gap, making waves in the gap edges as it circles. Tentatively called S/2005 S1, the moon measures four miles across and is about 85,000 miles from the center of Saturn. More observations are needed to determine the shape of the moon's orbit, but preliminary findings show it is in the middle of the gap, said Joseph Spitale, a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. S/2005 S1 is the second known moon to exist within Saturn's shimmering rings. The other is Pan, which orbits in the Encke gap. All of Saturn's other known moons are outside the main ring system. The $3.3 billion Cassini mission, funded by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997 and took seven years to reach Saturn. The Huygens probe aboard the spacecraft was released in December 2004 and plunged to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in January. Titan's atmosphere is similar to that of early Earth and scientists say studying it could provide clues to how life arose here. 05/10/05 20:47 EDT Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
