Two Ringlets in the Encke Gap

Although it appears empty from a distance, the Encke gap in Saturn's A ring has three ringlets threaded through it, two of which are visible here.

Each ringlet has dynamical structure such as the clumps seen in this image. The clumps move about and even appear and disappear, in part due to the gravitational effects of Pan.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 27 degrees above the ringplane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 11, 2013.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 199,000 miles (321,000 kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 121 degrees. Image scale is 1 mile (2 kilometers) per pixel.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute