CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS

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Clumps for Encke

 

Squinting at this view of Saturn’s rings reveals not one but two of the four narrow ringlets in the Encke gap (325 kilometers, 200 miles wide). The innermost of the two ringlets being much brighter and full of clumps.

The complicated and dynamic features in the Encke gap are extensively influenced by the presence of Pan (28 kilometers, 17 miles across), which orbits in the center of the gap. The Encke gap may contain other small moonlets which Imaging Team members hope to discover in the future.

The image was taken in visible light with the wide angle camera on Aug. 20, 2005, from a distance of approximately 273,000 kilometers (170,000 miles) from Saturn. The image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.

 

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Clumps for Encke
PIA 07595


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