What is Pandora’s role among Saturn’s moons?

Pandora is a shepherd moon of Saturn. It helps shape and confine Saturn’s narrow F ring through its gravitational interaction with the ring and with the nearby moon Prometheus.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft photographed Pandora in 1980, and the moon was discovered in images from that encounter. Pandora is irregularly shaped and relatively small, with a mean radius of roughly 40 kilometres. Its orbit lies just outside the F ring, while Prometheus orbits on the inner side. Their combined gravitational effects influence the ring’s strands and braided appearance.

“Pandora” can refer to several unrelated subjects, including the Greek mythological woman, asteroid 55 Pandora, and the fictional moon in Avatar. Saturn’s Pandora is a natural satellite, not an asteroid or a planet. Its classification as a shepherd moon refers to its dynamical relationship with a planetary ring, not to its size or surface appearance.