{"id":14810,"date":"2017-03-11T21:33:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T13:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/cassini-glimpses-saucer-shaped-moon-plowing-through-saturns-rings\/"},"modified":"2017-03-11T21:33:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T13:33:18","slug":"cassini-glimpses-saucer-shaped-moon-plowing-through-saturns-rings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/cassini-glimpses-saucer-shaped-moon-plowing-through-saturns-rings\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassini glimpses saucer-shaped moon plowing through Saturn\u2019s rings"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22862\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22862\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-22862\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22862\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This raw, unprocessed image of Saturn\u2019s moon Pan was taken on March 7, 2017, by NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Saturn\u2019s moon Pan, embedded in a gap in Saturn\u2019s icy rings, has drawn comparisons to a walnut or ravioli in new images from NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>In the final months of a 13-year mission at Saturn, Cassini captured the best-ever views of Pan on March 7, revealing new details about the moon\u2019s shape and geology.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22867\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22867\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-22867\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309b.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309b-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309b-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309b-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22867\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This raw, unprocessed image of Saturn\u2019s moon Pan was taken on March 7, 2017, by NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Most prominent is a frozen ridge along the 17-mile-wide (28-kilometer) object\u2019s equator, likely formed as Pan scoops up bits of ice as it plows through Saturn\u2019s rings.<\/p>\n<p>Pan clears out material in the Encke Gap, a 200-mile-wide (325-kilometer) break in Saturn\u2019s famous rings. The object is the second-innermost moon of Saturn and orbits around 83,000 miles (134,000 kilometers) from the planet, completing one lap in less than 14 hours.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22868\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22868\" style=\"width: 675px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-22868\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"675\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309c.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309c-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309c-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/cassini20170309c-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22868\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This raw, unprocessed image of Saturn\u2019s moon Pan was taken on March 7, 2017, by NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft. The edges of the Encke Gap in Saturn\u2019s rings are visible in this image. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Cassini passed around 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) from Pan last week as the spacecraft loops around Saturn in a series of \u201cring-grazing\u201d orbits, offering the mission\u2019s best views of the rings and the moons lurking nearby.<\/p>\n<p>The probe will begin flying through the gap between the innermost ring and Saturn\u2019s atmosphere in April, setting up for a destructive plunge into the planet in September to end the mission.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This raw, unprocessed image of Saturn\u2019s moon Pan was taken on March 7, 2017, by NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute Saturn\u2019s moon Pan, embedded in a gap in Saturn\u2019s icy rings, has drawn comparisons to a walnut or ravioli in new images from NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft. In the final months of a 13-year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2394,1183,3384,1561,1562],"class_list":["post-14810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cassini","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-pan","tag-planetary-science","tag-saturn"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}