A moon is born: Say hello to Peggy at Saturn

This is a little weird; just a little. Scientists they are witnessing what amounts to a Moon being born, aptly named Peggy, at Saturn's A ring. To be specific scientists aren't sure if it's the birth of a Moon or the death of one so they'll need further study to sort this one out. Check it out, ATS.

Scientists suspect that the disturbance visible at the outer edge of Saturn's A ring in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft could be caused by an object replaying the birth process of icy moons. The image was captured by Cassini's narrow-angle camera on April 15, 2013.

www.nbcnews.com...

reply to post by lostbook


Thats cool.

Cassini's scientists hope to get a closer look at Peggy when the probe zooms closer to the A ring in 2016.

If the "moon-etesimal" is growing in mass it is moving further out?

That could take a long time…

I have this theory about the great red spot on Jupiter. Wonder if theres a "moon-etesimal" growing in there too?

intrptr
reply to post by lostbook

 

Thats cool.

Cassini's scientists hope to get a closer look at Peggy when the probe zooms closer to the A ring in 2016.

If the "moon-etesimal" is growing in mass it is moving further out?

That could take a long time…

I have this theory about the great red spot on Jupiter. Wonder if theres a "moon-etesimal" growing in there too?

Interesting....Never thought of that..

reply to post by intrptr

I have this theory about the great red spot on Jupiter. Wonder if theres a "moon-etesimal" growing in there too?

If there were, it wouldn't go anywhere but down unless it had it's own source of propulsion.

reply to post by Phage


Steady on Phage!

...unless it had it's own source of propulsion.

That kind of talk is enough to launch threads around here.

Phage Discovers Red Spot of Jupiter is Mysterious Technology (not ours)!!!

Here's one of them with its periscope out in the Rings of Saturn.

On - topic:

"We have not seen anything like this before," Murray said in a report from NASA Science News. "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 longer we watch, the more we'll learn. Nice article.

Wow, interesting discovery! Can moons actually form in Saturn's rings? As far as I'm aware, the rings are located inside Saturn's Roche limit, where Saturn's strong gravitational pull tends to rip objects apart rather than help them form.

Cassini raw images:
saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...
saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...


The bright smudge is the peanut-shaped moon Prometheus.

reply to post by Phage

If there were, it wouldn't go anywhere but down unless it had it's own source of propulsion.

You mean "in". Thing is, moons enjoy a (whatmacallit) equilibrium with their hosts. Jupiter's core is many Earth diameters away from its outer edge. Why couldn't there be a "Lagrange" point (if thats the right term) around the core but still within the upper cloud layers? I know, dumb idea. Never heard of it before, however.

The spot is a hundreds year old "cyclone". It is close to the equator, (like rings and Shepard moons). It travels against the grain of wind flow, I think? All this made me wonder.

I have asked you before for something to read and you have been most kind in that regard. Surely they have entertained this idea and debunked it. If you would sir point me in a direction…

PS: I guess that satellite arriving there (Jupiter) in 2015 will be able to confirm once they aim that radar at the spot.