NASA's Cassini captures mysterious glitch 'Peggy' in Saturn's rings: 7 things to know

This finding is likely to give an insight into the origination of Saturn's other known icy moons.

nasa, Cassini, spacecraft, Saturn, Grand Finale, space, — Cassini's view of Saturn during its 2009 equinox shows both the northern and southern hemispheres equally sunlit, with the north pole half in shadow. Since then, the sun has risen fully over the north, while the south has slipped into winter shadow.NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The Grand Finale of NASA's Cassini Spacecraft took place on September 15, 2017 but it detected a mysterious feature of the Ringed Planet which the astronomers were not able to explain.

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Here are the top 7 things to know about this finding:

1. The feature is known as Peggy, which is a shifting spot on the edge of one of the planet's rings. NASA astronomers expect it to be a new formation.

2. This finding is likely to give an insight into the origin of Saturn's other known icy moons.

3.The phenomenon was first spotted by Cassini on April 15, 2013 on Saturn's outermost ring, known as the A-ring, by the spacecraft's narrow angle camera.

nasa, Saturn, Cassini, space, — The disturbance visible at the outer edge of Saturn's A ring in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft could be caused by an object replaying the birth process of icy moons.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

4. A Cassini team member Carl Murray, who is a 27-year Cassini project veteran of Queen Mary University discovered this glitch in Saturn's ring while he was analysing the planet's moon Prometheus.

5. This phenomenon was named after Murray's mother-in-law as it was spotted on her birthday. "What is it? Where did it come from? Where is it going? We've been tracking it almost ever since," Murray said, as quoted by Gizmodo. "We've never actually resolved the object. All we can do is track the glitch."

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6. The researchers are speculating that this feature might be pointing towards the formation of a moon. It also might be an enormous object causing glitch in the ring, they felt. But this hypothesis was ruled out, given the fact that such a massive object would have caused more chaos due to its size.

7. Now, the astronomers believe that the glitch in the smooth appearance of the ring must have caused by a piece of debris which passed through the ring. However, the mystery is yet to be solved.