* Astronomy

This image of the two F Ring shepherd moons, Prometheus and Pandora (center)  was taken on the 15th January, 2010, by the Cassini spacecraft.


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Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

This image of Pandora was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on May 01, 2007, when it was approximately 2,253,955 kilometres away.


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Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

This is an image of the shepherd moon, Pandora whose gravitational influence helps confine and perturb the F ring's shape.
Also notable here is the brightness of the region of the outer A ring which lies outside the very narrow Keeler gap.
This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 38 degrees above the ringplane.


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Credit NASA

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 16, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometres from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 157 degrees. Image scale is 12 kilometres per pixel.

This is the Cassini spacecraft's best close-up view of Saturn's F ring shepherd moon, Pandora.

The image shows that the moon is coated in fine dust-sized icy material.
Craters formed on this object by impacts appear to be covered by debris, a process that probably happens rapidly in a geologic sense. The grooves and small ridges on Pandora (84 kilometres across) suggest that fractures affect the overlying smooth material.

The crisp craters on another Saturn moon, Hyperion, provide a contrasting example of craters on a small object.


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Cassini acquired infrared, green and ultraviolet images on September 5, 2005, which were combined to create this false-colour view. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 52,000 kilometres from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 54 degrees.
Resolution in the original image was about 300 meters per pixel. The image has been magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.

This image of Pandora was taken on September 05, 2005 from a distance of approximately 51,298 kilometres.


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The image was taken using the P0 and GRN filters.

This is one of Cassini's closest views to date of Saturn's F ring shepherd moon Pandora. At least one crater is visible on the surface of this moon, which is thought to be an icy rubble pile, loosely bound together by gravity.



Pandora is 84 kilometres across.
Several of Saturn's ring moons, including Pandora, show elongated, oval-like shapes with their long axes oriented along the moon-Saturn line. In this view, Cassini is looking at the side of Pandora facing away from Saturn. The image shows the moon's leading hemisphere (although, as mentioned, Pandora is not actually round). To the right, much of the moon's surface is in shadow.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 346,000 kilometres from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 21 degrees.

Resolution in the original image was 2 kilometres per pixel. The view was magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility of the moon's surface.

This image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft on June 22, 2005 and received on Earth June 22, 2005.


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The camera was pointing toward Pandora that was approximately 1,961,675 kilometres away. The image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.

The shepherd moon, Pandora, is seen here alongside the narrow F ring that it helps maintain.
Pandora is 84 kilometres across.



Cassini obtained this view from about four degrees above the ringplane.
Captured here are several faint, dusty ringlets in the vicinity of the F ring core. The ringlets do not appear to be perturbed to the degree seen in the core.

The appearance of Pandora here is exciting, as the moon's complete shape can be seen, thanks to reflected light from Saturn, which illuminates Pandora's dark side. The hint of a crater is visible on the dark side of the moon.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 4, 2005, at a distance of approximately 967,000 kilometres from Pandora and at a Sun-Pandora-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 117 degrees.
The image scale is 6 kilometres per pixel.