Prometheus and the Rings

Saturn's small, potato-shaped moon Prometheus orbits between the main rings and the thin F ring in this Cassini spacecraft view.

Prometheus can be seen just above the center of the image as it orbits in the Roche Division. The gravitational influence of Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) periodically creates streamer-channels in the F ring. To learn more and to watch a movie of this process, see PIA08397.

This view looks toward the northern, sunlit side of the rings from just above the ringplane.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 15, 2010. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Prometheus. Image scale is 15 kilometers (9 miles) per pixel.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute