The small moon of Saturn that helps shepherd the planet’s F ring is Pandora. It is an outer shepherd satellite whose gravity works with the nearby moon Prometheus to constrain and shape the narrow ring.
Voyager 1 images discovered Pandora in 1980, and the International Astronomical Union formally approved its name in 1985. The moon was named after Pandora from Greek mythology. Prometheus, another Saturnian moon, is likewise named for a figure from the same mythological tradition.
Pandora is irregularly shaped and heavily cratered. Its orbit lies outside the F ring, while Prometheus orbits inside it. Their combined gravitational effects help maintain the ring’s structure, although the interaction is complex and can produce changes in the ring’s strands.
Pandora should not be confused with Epimetheus, which is a larger co-orbital moon involved in Saturn’s unusual orbital exchange with Janus. Pandora’s defining connection is specifically its role as an F-ring shepherd.