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Atlas, Daphnis and Pan are small, inner, ring moons of Saturn, shown at the same scale in this montage of images from the Cassini spacecraft.

Daphnis was discovered in Cassini images from 2005. Atlas and Pan were first sighted in images from the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. Flying saucer-shaped Atlas orbits near the outer edge of Saturn's bright A Ring, while Daphnis orbits inside the A Ring's narrow Keeler Gap, and Pan within the A Ring's larger Encke Gap. The curious equatorial ridges of the small ring moons could be built up by the accumulation of ring material over time. Even diminutive Daphnis makes waves in the ring material as it glides along the edge of the Keeler Gap.

Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

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It was 228 years to the day - well actually, to the day +2 - that William Herschel discovered Saturn's moon Enceladus. It was August 28, 1789 and he was using his new telescope which was then the largest in the world. William didn't name any of his discoveries, but his son John Herschel suggested names for the moons of Saturn. Enceladus was one of the mythological giants related to Cronos, the Greek equivalent of Saturn.

Image: NASA/JPL/SSI

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Even with all of the time Cassini spent studying the Saturnian system, many questions remain unanswered. One of the puzzles is the moon Dione - is it active? There was some inconclusive evidence of cryovolcanism, probably related to the Janiculum Dorsa mountain region where the crust is bent.

A recent paper suggests that Dione could have a subsurface ocean like Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa.
Quote:
Dione gets heated up by being stretched and squeezed as it gets closer to and farther from Saturn in its orbit. With an icy crust that can slide around independently of the moon's core, the gravitational pulls of Saturn get exaggerated and create 10 times more heat.

Certainly if Dione is - or was in the past - active, it doesn't match the activity visible on Enceledus.

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One of our Solar System's most tantalizing worlds, Enceladus is backlit by the Sun in this Cassini spacecraft image from November 1, 2009. The dramatic illumination reveals the plumes that continuously spew into space from the south pole of Saturn's 500-km diameter moon. Discovered by Cassini in 2005, the icy plumes are likely connected to an ocean beneath the ice shell of Enceladus. They supply material directly to Saturn's outer, tenuous E ring and make the surface of Enceladus as reflective as snow.

Across the scene, Saturn's icy rings scatter sunlight toward Cassini's cameras. Beyond the rings, the night side of 80 kilometer diameter moon Pandora is faintly lit by Saturnlight.


Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA
Description: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)

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