Saturn’s little system hit a big milestone this week with the announcement of its 60th moon. This new moon joins the crop of new satellites turned up by researchers poring through data sent back by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
The newly discovered moon first appeared as a faint dot in a series of images captured by Cassini on May 30. The discoverers, from Queen Mary, University of London, then went back through the vast library of Cassini images, verifying that they had found a new object.
Codenamed “Frank” for now, the new moon is only about 2 km (1.2 miles) across, and it’s mostly made of ice and rock. It’s located in between the orbits of Methone and Pallene.
This is the fifth new moon discovered by the Cassini imaging team.
Original Source: Cassini-Huygens News Release
Recent Posts
Quantum Correlations Could Solve the Black Hole Information Paradox
The black hole information paradox has puzzled physicists for decades. New research shows how quantum…
M87 Releases a Rare and Powerful Outburts of Gamma-ray Radiation
In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration made history when it released the first-ever…
Astronomers Find a Black Hole Tipped Over on its Side
Almost every large galaxy has a supermassive black hole churning away at its core. In…
NASA is Developing Solutions for Lunar Housekeeping’s Biggest Problem: Dust!
Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send the first astronauts to the Moon since the…
Where’s the Most Promising Place to Find Martian Life?
New research suggests that our best hopes for finding existing life on Mars isn’t on…
Can Entangled Particles Communicate Faster than Light?
Entanglement is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of quantum mechanics. On its surface,…