Daphnis and the Rings of Saturn
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute, Cassini
Explanation: What's happening to the rings of Saturn? Nothing much, just a little moon making waves. The moon is 8-kilometer
Daphnis and it is making waves in the
Keeler Gap of
Saturn's rings using just its gravity -- as it
bobs up and down, in and out. The
featured image is a wide-field version of a
previously released image taken last month by the robotic
Cassini spacecraft during one of its new
Grand Finale orbits. Daphnis can be seen on the far right, sporting ridges likely accumulated from
ring particles.
Daphnis was discovered in Cassini images in 2005 and raised mounds of ring particles so high in 2009 -- during
Saturn's equinox when the ring plane pointed directly at the Sun -- that they
cast notable shadows.
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