The Encke Gap: A Moon Goes Here
Yesterday,
Cassini became the first
spacecraft to enter orbit around
gas giant Saturn,
rocketing through a 25,000 kilometer wide gap in the
distant planet's magnificent system
of icy rings at about 15 kilometers per second.
Turning to snap pictures, Cassini's narrow angle
camera recorded this stunning close-up of a much smaller
gap in the rings, the Encke Gap.
A mere 300 kilometers wide, the Encke Gap is flanked by amazing
structures within
the
rings -- scalloped edges and patterns of density waves
are clear in the sharp image.
While the rings of Saturn are likely debris from the breakup
of a fair-sized icy moon,
the Encke Gap itself is created by the
repeated passage of
a
tiny moon.
Only 20 kilometers wide that tiny
moon, Pan, was
also
detected
by Cassini's camera as the spacecraft approached the
Saturnian system.