Saturn: Moons: Pandora
Little is known about Pandora, one of the shepherd moons of Saturn's F ring. The potato-shaped moon is coated in a fine, dust-sized icy material. Even the craters are coated in debris, a stark contrast to the crisply-defined craters of other moons, such as Hyperion.
Curious grooves and ridges also appear to cross the surface of the small moon. Pandora is partly interesting because, along with its companion moon Prometheus, it helps shepherd the particles of Saturn's F ring into a distinct ring. Pandora is about 84 kilometers (52 miles) across.
Discovery
Pandora was discovered in October 1980 by the Voyager 1 science team.
How Pandora Got its Name
In mythology, Pandora (pan-DOR-uh) was a work of art who was transformed into a human by the gods. Her curiosity was said to have loosed all manner of ills upon the world when she let evil creatures out of a locked box; however, she is also responsible for ope entering the world ("hope" had been the ast "creature" in the box).
