Saturn's Moons

Prometheus (Saturn XVI)

Orbit:139,350 km from Saturn
Diameter:91 km (145 x 85 x 62)
Mass:2.7e17 kg
Discovered by:S. Collins and others in 1980 from Voyager photos.

Prometheus is the inner shepherd satellite of the F ring.

Prometheus has a number of ridges and valleys and several craters about 20 km in diameter but appears to be less cratered than the neighboring moons Pandora, Janus and Epimetheus.

From their very low densities and relatively high albedos, it seems likely that Prometheus, Pandora, Janus and Epimetheus are very porous icy bodies. (Note, however, that there is a lot of uncertainty in these values.)
The 1995/6 Saturn Ring Plane Crossing observations found that Prometheus was lagging by 20 degrees from where it should have been based on Voyager 1981 data. This is much more than can be explained by observational error. It is possible that Prometheus's orbit was changed by a recent encounter with the F ring, or it may have a small companion moon sharing its orbit.

Pandora (Saturn XVII)

Pandora ("pan DOR uh") is the fourth of Saturn's known satellites.

Orbit:141,700 km from Saturn
Diameter:84 km (114 x 84 x 62)
Mass:2.2e17 kg
Discovered by: Collins and others in 1980 from Voyager photos.

More heavily cratered than nearby Prometheus, Pandora has at least two large craters 30 km in diameter. But it shows no linear ridges or valleys.

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Last Modified : 5 Sep. 2001
Created By#C0115361 Team