Saturn: Moons: Pan
Pan, the innermost of Saturn's known moons, is located within the Encke Gap of Saturn's A-ring. It acts as a shepherd satellite and is responsible for keeping the Encke Gap open. The gap is a 325-kilometer (200-mile) opening in Saturn's A ring.
Pan is responsible for creating stripes, called 'wakes,' in the ring material on either side of it. Since ring particles closer to Saturn than Pan move faster in their orbits, these particles pass the moon and receive a gravitational "kick" from Pan as they do. This kick causes waves to develop in the gap where the particles have recently interacted with Pan (see The Encke Gap as Never Seen Before), and also throughout the ring, extending hundreds of kilometers into the rings. These waves intersect downstream to create the wakes, places where ring material has bunched up in an orderly manner thanks to Pan's gravitational kick.
Pan, like Saturn's moon Atlas, has a prominent equatorial ridge that gives it a distinctive flying saucer shape.
Discovery
Pan was discovered by M.R. Showalter in 1990 using images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft nine years earlier.
How Pan Got its Name
Pan was a satyr (a creature resembling a man with the hind legs and hooves of a goat). He was a Greek god of nature and the forest.
