PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- NASA scientists say recent Cassini spacecraft observations suggest Saturn's moons might be creating more rings around the planet.
During a recent unprecedented viewing opportunity -- with the sun poised behind Saturn -- scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., confirmed the presence of four new rings. All are associated with one or more small moons and scientists suspect a moon is lurking near a third ring.
Under the cover of Saturn's shadow in mid-September, the entire ring system became visible, never-before-seen microscopic particles began to appear and a single, faint new ring at the orbits of two moonlets, Janus and Epimetheus, was discovered.
A second ring was found a week later, while two more rings are visible in the big gap in Saturn's main ring system.
"We are hot on the trail of these possible elusive moonlets," said Joe Burn, Cassini imaging scientist at Cornell University. "Finding the moons and learning about their interactions with the rings will help us understand how the moons formed and perhaps how the Saturn system formed."
