NASA's Cassini spacecraft has documented the formation of a small icy object within the rings of Saturn that may be a new moon probably no more than half a mile in diameter.
The findings may provide clues to the formation of the Saturn's known moons and give insight into how Earth and other planets in our solar system may have formed and migrated away from the Sun.
Images taken with Cassini's narrow angle camera on April 15, last year show disturbances at the very edge of Saturn's A ring - the outermost of the planet's large, bright rings.
One of these disturbances is an arc about 20 per cent brighter than its surroundings, 1,200 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide.
Scientists also found unusual protuberances in the usually smooth profile at the ring's edge. They believe the arc and protuberances are caused by the gravitational effects of a nearby object.
The object is not expected to grow any larger, and may even be falling apart. But the process of its formation and outward movement aids in our understanding of how Saturn's icy moons, including the cloud-wrapped Titan and ocean-holding Enceladus, may have formed in more massive rings long ago