Saturn’s moon Pandora helps shepherd the planet’s F ring.
Pandora travels just outside Saturn’s narrow, braided F ring, while the moon Prometheus orbits on the ring’s inner side. Their combined gravitational influence confines and shapes the ring’s material, which is why they are described as shepherd satellites.
The F ring is one of Saturn’s most distinctive rings. It is narrow, bright, and structurally complex, with strands and kinks caused by gravitational interactions. Pandora’s outer position is an important part of the standard explanation for how the ring remains confined, although the ring’s detailed structure is more complicated than a simple two-moon boundary.
Pandora was discovered in Voyager 1 images in 1980, and the Cassini spacecraft later observed it at much higher resolution. The moon should not be confused with Saturn’s moon Prometheus: both shepherd the F ring, but Pandora is the outer shepherd and Prometheus is the inner one.