When a snowball becomes a moon: When enough stuff accretes onto a body within Saturn's rings, they can become a Shepherd Moon. These moons rule over their own ring gaps. They also shepherd the rings, keeping them in order. If they have enough gravity, they can create disturbances in the edges of their gaps. Daphnis orbits within the Keeler Gap and as the material passes it the moon gives it little tugs creating rhythmic waves.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

#Saturn #Space #Science

@kevinmgill By the ripples I guess the outer rings orbit slower than the inner rings, right?
@Ailantd 💯 Correct! The ripples on the inner edge lead Daphnis and those on the outter edge trail it.
@kevinmgill wow this is legitimately cool. Stunning photos too
@kevinmgill So interesting! Also... Now I want to eat Shepherd's pie...
@kevinmgill simply mind blowing. I love space.
@kevinmgill Cassini shots are my favorite space pics of any mission so far. Cassini and the people who designed/ran it are artist.
@kevinmgill I'm guessing the moon isn't geosynchronous because ripples from an oblong shaped moon suggest rotation, or possibly the density of the ring isn't constant and the gravity differences of the ring tug on pull on the nearer sides of the moon. If the moon isn't currently spinning. I bet you could use the ripples to determine when it was spinning and for how long. Does this make any sense?