* Astronomy

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RE: Daphnis

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This image of Daphnis was taken by the Cassini spaceprobe on July 05, 2010.

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Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The image was taken using the BL1 and CL2 filters.

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This image shows long shadows cast by distortions on the edge the A ring created by the gravity of the moon Daphnis.
The image was taken in visible light by the Cassini spacecraft on the 28th July, 2009, shortly before Saturn's August 2009 equinox.

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Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Daphnis is seen as the bright dot in the Keeler Gap near the disruption at the bottom of the image. The moon is approximately 983,000 kilometres away from the Cassini spacecraft.
The Image scale is 6 kilometres per pixel.

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Vertical structures in Saturn's rings

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RE: Daphnis

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Daphnis and Pan

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RE: Daphnis

Blobrana · L

This view offers a detailed look at the faint rings within the Cassini Division as well as a glimpse of the Keeler gap moon, Daphnis. The small, ring embedded moon is a bright unresolved speck above centre, near the outer edge of the A ring.

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Discovered in Cassini images in 2005, Daphnis is a mere 7 kilometres across.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 20, 2006, at a distance of approximately 483,000 kilometres from Saturn. The image scale on the sky at the distance of Daphnis is about 2 kilometres per pixel.

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S/2005 S 1 = XXXV Daphnis

Daphnis was discovered on May 1, 2005 by the Cassini Imaging Science Team.
The name comes from the shepherd, pipes player, and pastoral poet in Greek mythology.
Daphnis was the son of Hermes, brother of Pan, and descendant of the Titans.

The 7 kilometres diameter moon orbits in the Keeler gap in Saturn's A ring, with a orbital radius of 136,500 kilometres. It has an orbital period of 0.594 days.
Like Pan, Daphnis was discovered on the basis of the wavy features it excites in the edges of a gap within Saturn's A ring.

The A ring is the outermost of the two largest, brightest rings. Its inner boundary is the Cassini Division and its sharp outer boundary is the orbit of the small moon Atlas. The A Ring is divided in two near its outer edge by the Encke Division which is caused by the presence of the small moon Pan. A smaller, fainter division is called the Keeler Gap, and is kept clear by the moonlet Daphnis.