Saturn’s moon Pandora completes an orbit in approximately 15.1 hours. Its short period reflects the moon’s close distance to Saturn: Pandora travels around the planet at roughly 141,700 kilometers from Saturn’s center.
Pandora is an irregular, potato-shaped satellite about 81 kilometers across. Together with the moon Prometheus, it helps confine and shape Saturn’s narrow F ring through gravitational interactions. Pandora orbits just outside the ring, while Prometheus travels just inside it, creating the “shepherd moon” arrangement.
Voyager 1 images revealed Pandora in 1980, although the discovery was announced later that year. Its name comes from the Greek mythological figure, continuing a convention in which many Saturnian moons receive names from classical mythology. The 15.1-hour period is distinct from Pandora’s orbital resonance relationships and should not be confused with its rotation period, which is tidally locked.