Cassini and Saturn's Moonlets?
New CU-Boulder Study Confirms First-Known Belt Of Moonlets In Saturn Rings
Quote:
A narrow belt harboring moonlets as large as football stadiums discovered in Saturn's outermost ring probably resulted when a larger moon was shattered by a wayward asteroid or comet eons ago, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder study.
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The team calculated that there likely are thousands of moonlets ranging in size from semi-trailers to sports arenas embedded in the "A" ring's thin moonlet belt that circles the planet.
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The moonlets may be the result of the break-up of a ring-moon similar to Pan -- Saturn's innermost 20-mile diameter moon -- that was smashed by a comet or meteor, the team concluded. The team calculated the mass of the unseen moonlets in the belt greater than 50 feet in diameter to arrive at the estimated size of the moon involved in the collision creating the belt.
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(Related to March 2006 report of "propellor" minimoons in
this article.)