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The high-resolution image of Daphnis is pretty astonishing [1]. You can see the moon back-illuminating a thin silver lining around the crest of the trailing den
by autocorr 10y ago
The high-resolution image of Daphnis is pretty astonishing [1]. You can see the moon back-illuminating a thin silver lining around the crest of the trailing density wave. I missed it just looking at the thumbnail picture!
Both of the moons imaged in the flyby, Daphnis and Pandora, are of interest because they're examples of shepherd moons [2] that sculpt the surrounding ring material. For example, the Cassini Division [3] is made by Mimas clearing material at the 2-to-1 orbital resonance. Daphnis, along with Pan, also happens to be the only shepherd moon orbiting within Saturn's main rings.
[1] http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21056 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21056 (click the "full resolution JPEG")
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherd_moon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherd_moon
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Saturn#Cassini_Division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Saturn#Cassini_Divisi...