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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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Saturn - rings - Saturn - kol'ca Saturna - sputniki Saturna Publikacii so slovami: Saturn - rings - Saturn - kol'ca Saturna - sputniki Saturna
Sm. takzhe: Saturn at Night Luna zatmevaet Saturn Saturn u kraya Luny Cveta Saturna ot "Kassini" Stereo-Elena Vremena goda na Saturne Severnyi shestiugol'nik na Saturne Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>