In this week's Discovery Space Wrap Up: The Hubble Space Telescope captures a moon parade around Saturn, GOCE the gravity mapping satellite launches, the International Space Station gets its wings.
The Cassini spacecraft continues to do a fine job zooming around Saturn, boldly spying where no man-made spacecraft has spied before.
Guess what it recently found? A new moonlet! (aka a tiny moon)
Here's the pic of this little bugger, circled in red, which hangs out in the G ring of Saturn:
The object, about 1/3 of a mile wide, is Saturn's 61st confirmed moo moon (thanks readers for the catch -- who knew planets could moo?). The short path it sweeps in the above image is roughly 10 minutes in orbit.
Astronomers now blame the moonlet -- still unnamed -- for creating the ring; by having a little gravitational powers, it brings in ice and dust to form it.
If you're in the mood to see more of Saturn's moons, don't miss our image-packed slide show!
Photo: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute; CICLOPS; Dave Mosher
A new week, and a new video (were you expecting otherwise?):
Your space news wrap-up for the week waits below. And I don't care what you say, but I don't look like Shia LeBoeuf:
Note 1: Speaking of solar eclipses...
If you missed the audio slide shows from 2008 total solar eclipse trip (in a ginormous plane near the North Pole), click here for part one. Then click here for part two.
Note 2: Speaking of solar eclipses (again)...
Going to Asia or the South Pacific around, say, July 22 of this year? You're in for a treat! Click here to see why.
Regulars 'round these parts should now know the drill for these Discovery Space preview videos. If not, here's the deal:
What you do after that is up to you, but if it involves making fun of me, then you can join the healthy crowd on YouTube. They have many sticks with pointy ends to jab me.
That being said, entertain thyself -- and don't miss the extra goodies after the jump:
Dr Ian O'Neill produces Discovery Space for the Discovery Channel. He is a solar physicist, but loves to write about manned space exploration and exposing the myths behind bad science. He can also be found ranting about space on Astroengine.com.
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