A NASA spacecraft bound for Saturn recently flew by the asteroid 2685 Masursky, giving scientists a bonus look at the distant space rock, as well a test of their ability to use the probe's camera to possibly discover new moons at Jupiter and Saturn.

The $3.3 billion Cassini spacecraft flew within 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) of Masursky on January 23, snapping pictures on two occasions just hours before its closest approach.

Although the 9- to 12-mile- (15- to 20-kilometer-) across asteroid appears as a bright dot, the pictures may shed more light on Masursky than scientists could ever hope to get by peering at the tiny object from Earth-based telescopes.

"The Masursky images represent the first time that Cassini has gathered information on a body not extensively studied from Earth," said Carolyn Porco, leader of the Cassini imaging team and an associate professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Scientists had thought Masursky named for the planetary geologist Harold Masursky (1923-1990) was an S-type asteroid like Gaspra and Ida, previously imaged by the Galileo spacecraft, and Eros, reached on Monday by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft. S-type asteroids are bright and comprise about 17 percent of all asteroids. They are made of metallic nickel-iron, along with iron and magnesium silicates.

However, preliminary studies of Masursky including its albedo, or how reflective it is hint it may be composed of different material. Further study will likely give a more precise answer.

Cassini entered the Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in November 1999, more than two years after its launch and swing-bys of Venus twice and Earth once to gain momentum for its trip to Saturn.