NASA reveals unusual shape of Saturn’s moon Pan

The flyby had a close-approach distance of 15,268 miles (24,572 km). Earlier this year, Cassini captured another of Saturn’s shepherd moons, Daphins the “wavemaker.”

Most prominent is a frozen ridge along the 17-mile-wide (28-kilometer) object’s equator, likely formed as Pan scoops up bits of ice as it plows through Saturn’s rings. Or maybe just a flying saucer would be a better descriptor.

But for now, it will continue to beam back stunning images of Saturn and space ravioli.

At least, that’s the food item that came to my mind after checking out the new images of Saturn’s moon Pan. From computer models, the researchers suspect that as the moon coalesced, material from Saturn’s rings fell onto the tiny moon’s equator and built up its disklike silhouette. The images were taken by the Cassini spacecraft that flew by the tiny moon on March 7. Pan was first discovered in 1990 after it was predicted in 1985 by scientists Jeffrey N. Cuzzi and Jeffrey D. Scargle that a satellite or moon orbited around the Encke Gap, based on the wavy edges of the gap that indicated a gravitational disturbance.

According to NASA, Saturn’s moons originally got their names from the Titans of Greco-Roman mythology and their descendants.

The images will help NASA scientists to characterize the shape and geology of the small moon. But as Geekwire related, the new photos from NASA are the clearest proof so far of this unusual shape.

The images are just few hours old.

Scientists have known about Pan’s tutu-shaped waistline for a long time.

You can check out more raw images of Pan here. Stephanie Pappas at LiveScience explains that the moon is known as a “shepherd” because as it orbits Saturn within the planet’s iconic rings, its gravity sweeps an area inside the ring free of dusty particles.

Cassini is on the final phase of its outer ring-grazing orbits.

Cassini will enter what NASA is calling the “Grand Finale” phase next month and the mission will end this September and it will return back to Earth.