A knotted ringlet in the 'Encke Gap'
This image from the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was taken on on 29 October 2004, and shows intriguing 'knots' in a small ringlet within the 'Encke Gap'.
The Encke Gap is a small division near the outer edge of Saturn's rings that is about 300 kilometres wide. The tiny moon Pan (20 kilometres across) orbits within the gap and maintains its shape. Many waves produced by orbiting moons are visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft narrow-angle camera , at a distance of about 807 000 kilometres from Saturn. The image scale is 4.5 kilometres per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a co-operative project of NASA, ESA and ASI, the Italian space agency.
Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
