Pandora, one of Saturn’s small moons, was first identified in Voyager 1 images in 1980.
Voyager 1 photographed Pandora during its November 1980 encounter with Saturn. The moon was identified in images by Richard J. Terrile, and its discovery was announced after the spacecraft observations. Pandora is an irregular, small satellite that orbits near Saturn’s F ring and helps influence the ring’s structure together with the moon Prometheus.
Pandora and Prometheus are often called shepherd moons because their gravitational effects help shape and confine material in Saturn’s narrow F ring. Pandora travels outside the ring while Prometheus travels inside it. Their orbital interactions are part of the reason the F ring has a complex, braided appearance.
This moon is unrelated to asteroid 55 Pandora, discovered in 1858. Both objects were named after the Greek mythological figure, but one is a Saturnian satellite and the other is a main-belt asteroid.