Wave Rider

 

Daphnis Sculpts the Gap
Daphnis Sculpts the Gap

4.3-mile-wide Daphnis races along its track, the 26-mile-wide Keeler Gap in Saturn’s A ring, stirring up sinuous edge waves in the ring material behind and before it.

Click for Detail
Click for Detail

Not only does the shepherd moon cast a small shadow onto the ring, but so do the crests of the waves it’s creating! It’s a wonderful little display of relief in the dynamics of the rings.

Daphnis was discovered by the Cassini mission in 2005.

The image above was taken by Cassini’s cameras on May 10. Contrast was enhanced from the original raw image file.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

6 Comments

  1. Gordan says:

    Whoa, great image and great find!

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    1. J. Major says:

      Thanks Gordan….it’s very cool to see the detail in the waves like that!

      Like

  2. Bill says:

    Holy crap that’s amazing.

    Great ongoing work with the site, by the way.

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    1. J. Major says:

      Thanks Bill. Hey, when I said I wanted to do the site I wasn’t foolin’ around! 🙂

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  3. Todd says:

    Let me add to Bill’s comment, Jason. This site is sheer brill. I’ll be visiting regularly and urging others to do so. Have you contributed to the carnival of space?

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    1. J. Major says:

      Ah….no, I haven’t Todd. Not really sure how that works. I’ll look into it though! Thanks.

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