Saturn May Be Creating a New Baby Moon

NASA SCIENTISTS SAY they have discovered what could be the birth of a new moon in the rings of Saturn.

A spacecraft orbiting the planet spotted a small, icy object being formed within the rings which would be Saturn’s 63rd moon if confirmed.

The discovery could reveal how Earth and other planets in the solar system may have formed and migrated away from the sun to their current orbits, scientists said.

“We have not seen anything like this before,” said Carl Murray of Queen Mary University of London, the report’s lead author. “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.”

Casually dubbed “Peggy” by scientists, the potential moon is too small to be seen in any detail in images taken so far.

The most recent photo, which NASA released this week, was taken with Cassini’s narrow angle camera on April 15, 2013.

Agencies/Canadajournal