These could represent objects forming through the sort of collisional growth that is thought allow dust disks to give rise to planets and moons. And that's exactly the angle NASA's press release on the paper took, leading most headlines to echo the "new moon" story line. However, the paper itself indicates that that the opposite is more likely: we're probably witnessing the disintegration of a small moon. "We believe that this is strong evidence," they argue, "for the breakup of the precursor object due to a collision or tidal disruption." … [Read more...] about Cassini may be witnessing the birth (or death) of a moon of Saturn
