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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Cassini sees one of Saturn's moons making waves in its rings

• newatlas.com by Erick Mack

On January 16 it captured the closest view ever taken of the giant planet's so-called "wavemaker" moon, Daphnis.

The tiny moon is only 5 miles (8 km) across and orbits Saturn in between the rings in an area called the Keeler Gap. The gap is actually 26 miles (42 km) wide, but the angle from which Cassini took the shot at a distance of 17,000 miles (28,000 kilometers) makes it appear much more narrow.

Although Daphnis is small, its gravity still raises "waves" in the edges of the gap, both horizontally and vertically. This new photo demonstrates the effect in the horizontal plane, while earlier images from Cassini in 2009 captured Daphnis stirring vertical waves in the rings.