Ringing in a new moon.Last July, the Cassini spacecraft spacecraft Vehicle designed to operate, with or without a crew, in a controlled flight pattern above Earth's lower atmosphere. Since streamlining is not needed in the high vacuum of this environment, a spacecraft's shape is designed according to its mission (see passed through a clearing in Saturn's outermost out·er·most adj. Most distant from the center or inside; outmost. outermost Adjective furthest from the centre or middle Adj. 1. major ring and recorded a set of wavy features at the gap's edges. To explain the ripples, scientists predicted the existence of a new Saturnian moon. But, they couldn't tell for sure, because until this spring, Cassini orbited Saturn in the same plane as the rings. So, it could view them only as a pencil-thin line. In April, Cassini rose out of the plane, enabling the craft to peer down on the rings. On May 1, the spacecraft proved the moon prediction correct when it spotted the second known moon lying entirely within the planet's system of icy rings. Although the moon is only 7 kilometers across, it has enough gravity to scallop scallop or pecten, marine bivalve mollusk. Like its close relative the oyster, the scallop has no siphons, the mantle being completely open, but it differs from other mollusks in that both mantle edges have a row of steely blue "eyes" and the edges of what's known as the Keeler Keel´er n. 1. One employed in managing a Newcastle keel; - called also keelman ltname>. 2. A small or shallow tub; esp., one used for holding materials for calking ships, or one used for washing dishes, etc. gap in the A ring, the outermost of the planet's bright main rings. The other ring-bound Saturnian moon, 16-km-wide Pan, orbits along a closer-in clearing called the Encke gap and creates similar wavelike features. The moons Prometheus and Pandora, which lie on either side of Saturn's narrow F ring, also produce the scalloping scal·lop·ing n. A series of indentations or erosions on a normally smooth margin of a structure. scalloping effect. Cassini will fly above the rings until December, and researchers expect that it will uncover many more hidden moons. |
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