Pandora, Saturn’s moon, helps confine which ring of Saturn?

Pandora, Saturn’s moon, helps confine Saturn’s F ring. It is described as an outer shepherd satellite of the narrow, braided F ring, working with the inner shepherd moon Prometheus.

Shepherd moons influence nearby ring particles through their gravity. Pandora orbits outside the F ring, while Prometheus orbits inside it. Their combined gravitational effects help maintain the ring’s narrow structure, although the F ring is also shaped by complex interactions that produce kinks, strands, and braids.

Pandora was discovered in Voyager images in 1980, around the same period that the spacecraft revealed important details about Saturn’s rings. It is a small, irregular satellite rather than one of Saturn’s large spherical moons such as Titan or Rhea.

The moon’s name comes from Pandora in Greek mythology. Saturn’s ring system contains many named divisions and narrow rings, so identifying the F ring is more precise than simply saying that Pandora is associated with Saturn’s rings.