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Encke Ringlets
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Although Saturn's moon Pan is absent from this image of the A-Ring's Encke Gap, the moon's handiwork is still displayed.
The two ringlets seen in the gap are maintained by the gravitational action of Pan (about 28 Km, or approx. 17 miles across). To learn more about this process, see also PIA07528.
The point of light near the bottom of the image is a star.
This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the Rings from about 41° above the Ring-Plane. The image was taken in Visible Light with the Cassini Spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 17, 2009. The view was obtained at a distance of approx. 1,3 MKM (about 808.000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-Spacecraft, or Phase, Angle of 115°.
Image scale is roughly 8 Km (about 5 miles) per pixel.
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