A space probe’s last orbit through Saturn’s rings may finally give scientists a clear image of a small moonlet called Peggy. The spacecraft Cassini has its sights trained on the formation and is aiming for a shot that captures the entirety of the moonlet.
Cassini has been sending a steady stream of images back to Earth for 13 years but is nearing the end of its mission. It is estimated that the craft will succumb to the atmosphere of the ringed planet in September of this year, abruptly stopping the flow of images that have provided scientists with valuable information about Saturn and its rings.
Before the probe is destroyed, professor Carl Murray of Queen Mary University of London hopes to get a close-up of the developing moon. Murray first spotted Peggy on April 15, 2013, and named it after his mother-in-law who shares a birthday with the discovery.
Murray was really looking for Prometheus, a much larger moon associated with Saturn’s F ring, but noticed a small smudge in the background on the A-ring. The smudge turned out to be a tiny, newly formed moonlet that was so small it was only detectable by the disturbance it had caused in the ice and dust surrounding it.