PARIS, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has detected two tiny, previously-unknown moons orbiting Saturn between Mimas and Enceladus, mission scientists said Tuesday.
The moons may be the smallest bodies so far seen around the ringed planet.
The moons are approximately 2 miles and 3 miles (3 kilometers and 4 kilometers) in diameter, respectively and are located about 115,000 miles and 125,000 miles (195,000 km and 210,000 km) from the planet's center.
The moons are orbiting between two other Saturnian moons, Mimas and Enceladus. They have been given the temporary names, S/2004 S1 and S/2004 S2, and their discovery brings the current total of known Saturnian moons to 33.
The tiny moons were first seen by Sebastien Charnoz, a planetary scientist working with the Cassini-Huygens imaging team at the University of Paris.
S/2004 S1 actually may have been spotted in a single image taken by NASA's Voyager spacecraft 23 years ago. At that time, it was called S/1981 S14.
The smallest previously known moons around Saturn are about 12 miles (20 km) across. They are located within the orbit of the planet's rings.
