“I spy in the night sky, don’t I – “ Listening to old Blur, whilst showering away the day’s cares. I’ve got moon kittens on my mind.
For astrophysicists, the planet Saturn holds uncountable mysteries. Perhaps one of the cutest are the moon kittens, who are being born in Saturn’s rings. Of course, we’re not talking about literal kittens. The “kittens” are actually baby moons — or moonlets — which form after particles within the ring collide and clump together. Inspired by the purring satisfaction of the cat-loving portion of the research team, who chose names like Mittens and Fluffy for the moons, Gemma Mahadeo sent us this story. Would we have explored space sooner if there were kittens? // Alex Massey