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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Saturn's innermost moons: Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, and Mimas, to scale

Saturn's innermost moons: Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, and Mimas, to scale
Saturn's innermost moons: Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, and Mimas, to scale The eight innermost moons of Saturn, in color images collected by Cassini between 7 June 2005, and 5 July 2010. Pan and Daphnis (top left small moons) orbit within the Encke and Keeler gaps in the rings; Atlas (below Pan and Daphnis) orbits at the outer edge of the main rings. To their right are Prometheus and Pandora; Prometheus orbits just inside and Pandora just outside the F ring. Below them are Epimetheus (left) and Janus (right), which trade positions every four years, averaging out to the same distance from Saturn. Mimas orbits considerably farther away, but its gravitational effects influence the positions of gaps and waves within the rings. At full resolution, the montage has a scale of 500 meters per pixel. NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Gordan Ugarkovic / Emily Lakdawalla

All of the color composites except Pan were produced by Gordan Ugarkovic. Some original color composites were approximate true color (RGB) and some enhanced color (IRGUV). Emily Lakdawalla adjusted their color to make the moons appear similar in color and brightness. Mimas was left more gray (less red) than the smaller moons, which is true to life, but the relative color and brightness differences among the different moons are not intended to be precise representations of reality. The image of Pan (the highest-resolution available) was a monochrome observation, and has been colorized to roughly match the appearance of the others.

Images were selected for their resolution and for similar phase angle. Phase angles range from 33 degrees (Prometheus) to 86 degrees (Pan). The images were resized to a common scale and rotated so that illumination appears to be coming from the right.

Some information about the observations:

Here is a version without Mimas.

Saturn's ringmoons
Saturn's ringmoons The eight innermost moons of Saturn, in color images collected by Cassini between June 7, 2005, and July 5, 2010. Pan and Daphnis (top left small moons) orbit within the Encke and Keeler gaps in the rings; Atlas (below Pan and Daphnis) orbits at the outer edge of the main rings. To their right are Prometheus and Pandora; Prometheus orbits just inside and Pandora just outside the F ring. Below them are Epimetheus (left) and Janus (right), which trade positions every four years, averaging out to the same distance from Saturn. For more information about this montage, visit this page.Image: NASA / JPL / SSI / Gordan Ugarkovic / Emily Lakdawalla