Planets and Moons  ID: 11279

A Dip In The Ring

Story by Aviva H. Rutkin Released on July 11, 2013
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One moon leaves its fingerprint behind on Saturn’s outermost ring.
Saturn’s F ring does not sit still. Located on the outermost edge of the planet's many planetary rings, it wriggles and writhes, morphing into a slightly different shape at every turn. These movements are no accident. They’re the result of moons—sometimes called shepherds—passing by the ring. One of these shepherds is Prometheus, a moonlet just 53 miles across. As Prometheus passes, its gravity pulls on the F ring’s icy particles. This causes kinks, channels and streamers to form along the arc of the ring. Over time, these regular wriggles form recognizable patterns, some as long as 65 miles from top to bottom. By studying Saturn’s rings with missions like Cassini, NASA scientists hope to learn more about the structure and fluctuations of the F ring. The video captures a moment when Prometheus’s orbit causes one of its fascinating stirs.
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Watch to see Prometheus pass by the F ring, leaving a channel in its wake.
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Watch this narrated video to learn more about Saturn’s F ring.
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The many kinks characteristic of Saturn’s F ring are visible in this image taken by Cassini.
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Saturn’s planetary rings are made up of cosmic dust. Shepherd moons pull on the dust, forming ripple patterns in the F ring, as seen here.
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Images from Cassini’s narrow-angle camera, taken between 2006 and 2008, showcase the F ring in different formations.

Story Credits

Lead Writer:
Aviva H. Rutkin (USRA)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Narrated video courtesy of NASA/JPL
Images courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/QMUL

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11279

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons