What is Pandora’s role in Saturn’s ring system?

Pandora is a shepherd moon of Saturn’s narrow F ring.

The small moon orbits just outside Saturn’s F ring and works gravitationally with the inner shepherd moon Prometheus. Their interactions help confine and shape the ring’s thin, irregular structure. Pandora is therefore called an outer shepherd satellite, while Prometheus is the inner shepherd.

Voyager 1 images confirmed Pandora’s existence in 1980, and the moon was subsequently named after the mythological Pandora. Its irregular, heavily cratered surface and low density are typical of many small outer Solar System bodies.

Pandora is sometimes confused with Prometheus because both moons influence the F ring and have names from Greek mythology. They are separate objects with different orbits: Prometheus lies inside the ring, whereas Pandora lies outside it. Their repeated gravitational encounters create the ring’s distinctive structure.