New Moon Hides In Saturn Rings

KingFishKingFish
edited May 2005 in Science & Tech
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted a previously unseen moon hiding in a gap between Saturn's rings, the space agency said Tuesday.
The newfound moon, which astronomers are calling S/2005 S1 for now, was first photographed on May 1 and is just 4 miles in diameter. Its discovery comes on the heels of an announcement last week that astronomers using ground-based telescopes in Hawaii had detected 12 other moons around Saturn.

The discovery of S/2005 S1 brings the total number of confirmed moons orbiting Saturn to 47.

Mission scientists had expected to find the new moon in the gap, known as the Keeler gap, after earlier photos revealed that the rings on either side of the gap had wavy, or scalloped, edges. Similar edges have been found alongside the Encke gap, where the moon Pan resides.
Not exactly tech news, mainly for our astronomer following here. -KF

Source: Wired
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