This NASA file image from 2003 shows an artist's conception of the spacecraft Cassini.  (AFP Photo)

    WASHINGTON, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have recently discovered that the planet Saturn is turning 60 -- not years, but moons.

    "We detected the 60th moon orbiting Saturn using the Cassini spacecraft's powerful wide-angle camera," said Carl Murray, a Cassini imaging team scientist in a statement released by NASA on Friday.

    The newly discovered moon first appeared as a very faint dot in a series of images Cassini took of the Saturnian ring system on May 30 of this year. After the initial detection, Murray and fellow Cassini imaging scientists played interplanetary detective, searching for clues of the new moon in the voluminous library of Cassini images to date.

    The Cassini imaging team's legwork paid off. They confirmed it is the 60th discovered moon of Saturn. It is about 2 km wide and, like so many of its neighbors, is made mostly of ice and rock. The moon's location in the Saturnian sky is between the orbits of Methone and Pallene.

    Scientists also established a good orbit for the new moon. Knowing where the moons are at all times is important to the Cassini mission for several reasons. One of the most important is so the spacecraft itself does not run into it.

    Another reason is each discovery helps provide a better understanding about how Saturn's ring system and all its billions upon billions of parts work and interact together. Finally, a discovery of a moon is important because with this new knowledge, the Cassini mission planners and science team can plan to perform science experiments during future observations.

    Murray and his colleagues may get the chance to explore Saturn's 60th moon. The Cassini spacecraft's trajectory will put it within 11,700 km in December of 2009.

    It is the fifth moon discovered by the Cassini imaging team. "When the Cassini mission launched back in 1997, we knew of only 18 moons orbiting Saturn," said Murray.

    "Now, between Earth-based telescopes and Cassini we have more than tripled that number - and each and every new discovery adds another piece to the puzzle and becomes another new world to explore."