Gravitational Disturbances

Caption NASA originale:"The clumpy disturbed appearance of the brilliant F-Ring constantly changes. The irregular structure of the Ring is due, in large part, to the gravitational perturbations on the ring material by one of Saturn's moons, Prometheus (about 102 Km, or 63 miles across).

Interior to the F-Ring, the A-Ring bears a striking resemblance to a classic grooved, vinyl record. Visible here are the Keeler Gap (about 42 Km, or 26 miles wide) and the Encke Gap (about 325 Km, or 200 miles wide).

The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 862 nnmts. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 26, 2006 at a distance of approx. 1,5 MKM (about 900.000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 141°. Image scale is roughly 8 Km (such as about 5 miles) per pixel".