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Stranger than fiction ... One of the first close-up pictures of Saturn's moon Pan, taken by the Cassini space probe. It has a distinctive ‘ravioli’-like shape. Picture: NASA
THAT’S not a moon, that’s a ... ravioli! Saturn’s strangest satellite, Pan, has been photographed for the first time. And it’s like nothing we’ve seen before.
The Cassini space probe has been taking risky dives through Saturn’s rings and sweeping past close to the planet ahead of its deliberate destruction in September this year.
Its impending inevitable demise means NASA’s happy to take risks.
Risks which include getting close enough to the cluster of ice and dust that forms Saturn’s iconic rings to get the first good look at its small moon, Pan.
It’s just 30km wide and helps ‘shepherd’ the rings into a distinctive gap.
A NASA animated gif of Saturn's moon Pan. This is the first time the moon has been seen up close. Source: NASASource:Supplied
“Pan in mind-blowing detail with its unmistakeable accretionary equatorial bulge,” tweeted the head of imaging for the Cassini mission, Carolyn Porco.
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Exactly where Pan comes from or how it was made is an ongoing matter of debate. It was only discovered in 1990 after a re-examination of photos from the Voyager missions.
Are they the leftover shards of a larger body which have since collected ring rubble and grown?
The new photos appear to support this idea, as dust particles appear to have been swept to the moonlet’s equator due to its rotation.
The pictures were taken on Tuesday. It has taken until today for the images to be transmitted, processed and distributed.
The Cassini space probe was launched in 1997. After 13 years in orbit, it will be deliberately burnt up in Saturn’s atmosphere to eliminate any risk it may contaminate the moons — some of which could potentially harbour life.