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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Saturn Moon Pan

Aug 29, 2005 - If you look closely, you can just see Saturn's moon Pan, making its way in between a gap in the planet's majestic rings. Pan is only 26 km (16 miles) across, and it lives inside the Encke Gap. It's also possible to see the subtle F ring in the upper right-hand corner of the photo. Cassini took this image on August 13, 2005 when it was approximately 2.3 million km (1.5 million miles) above Saturn.

[Maddad]

He Joe, you don't happen to have larger versions (or links) of this image and the other Pandoran one, do you?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Hey Dave,

Here is the full story link from Universe Today.com...

www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturn_ring_a_moon_pan.html

And from our favorite Space Agency NASA, is some interesting data, not only on Pan, but the other Moon's of Saturn in direct comparison.

solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Pan

[Maddad]

Thanks Joe. It looks like Pan is in the middle of a dark band in the rings. My guess is that the dark band is the material swept out of the ring by Pan.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

You are indeed correct Dave. Smaller satellite moons like Pan, orbit around a planet, sweeps up and maintains the gap. We owe a great deal to these maintenance worker moons to provide us great ring systems to marvel at.

Other small satellites also act as shepard Moons, keeping the ring particles within their own "track", by sheer gravitational influence. Some of them twisting and knotting into weird looking braids.

Too cool...