Daphnis
In this picture from last month, Daphnis drifts through the Keeler gap, at the center of its entourage of waves. The little moon (7 kilometers, or 4.3 miles across) draws material in the Keeler gap (42 kilometers, or 26 miles wide) into these now familiar edge waves as it orbits Saturn.
(You can compare this with Pan in the Encke gap - Pan is 16 miles in diameter and the Encke gap is 200 miles wide, so Pan doesn't cause waves as it orbits.)
Both Keeler and Encke gaps are in the A Ring. Go here for a good overview of all the rings and gaps.
1 Comments:
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At 12:40 PM, November 29, 2006
Anonymous had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->There are a number of other gaps throughout Saturn's rings, and we are all eagerly searching for moons that might be in those gaps. Curiously, so far we haven't seen them yet. The presence of moons amongst the rings has major implications for the origin and history of rings, as moons are potential progenitors of the rings.
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