Closeup of the "Braided" F Ring

Large size GIF image (124681 bytes)

This closeup view of Saturn's F Ring is from Voyager 1 image FDS 34930.48. It shows that the ring is composed of two bright strands and a fainter one inside them. The bright rings contain bends, kinks and bright clumps that give the illusion that these strands are braided. These features may be caused by the small gravitational effects of the nearby shepherding moons Pandora and Prometheus. The grid of black dots in the image are reseau markings.