Cassini Finds 'Missing Link' Moonlet Evidence in Saturn's Rings

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Wednesday March 29, 5:43 pm ET

WASHINGTON, March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have found evidence that a new class of small moonlets resides within Saturn's rings. There may be as many as 10 million of these objects within one of Saturn's rings alone.

The moonlets' existence could help answer the question of whether Saturn's rings were formed through the break-up of a larger body or are the remnants of the disk of material from which Saturn and its moons formed.

Careful analysis of high-resolution images taken by Cassini's cameras revealed four faint, propeller-shaped double-streaks. These features were found in an otherwise bland part of the mid-A ring, a bright section in Saturn's main rings.

Cassini imaging scientists reporting in this week's edition of the journal Nature believe the "propellers" provide the first direct observation of how moonlets of this size affect nearby particles. Cassini took the images as it slipped into Saturn's orbit on July 1, 2004.