Saturn’s moon Pandora is best known for shepherding the planet’s narrow F ring.
Pandora is a small inner moon of Saturn discovered in photographs taken by Voyager 1 in 1980. It orbits near the outer edge of Saturn’s F ring and acts as one of the ring’s gravitational shepherd satellites. Prometheus, another small moon, orbits on the opposite side of the F ring. Their combined gravitational influence helps confine and shape the ring’s material.
The F ring is narrow, braided, and dynamically changing. It contains particles whose motion is affected by nearby moons and by collisions within the ring. Pandora’s irregular shape and low mass make its interactions with the ring an important subject in planetary science.
Pandora is sometimes confused with Prometheus because the two moons work together around the F ring. They are distinct objects, however, and their names come from Greek mythology. Pandora’s association is specifically with the F ring, not Saturn’s more prominent A or B rings.