13th Largest Moon of Saturn - Pandora (5th Moon outwards from Saturn)

Pandora is an inner satellite of Saturn.

Pandora is the 13th largest moon of Saturn, and the 52th largest moon in the Solar System currently known.

Discovery

Pandora was discovered in October 1980 from photos taken by the Voyager 1 probe.


Naming

Pandora was provisionally designated S/1980 S26. In late 1985, the moon was officially named after Pandora, from Greek mythology.

In Greek mythology, Pandora was allegedly the first woman, who was made out of clay. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold her out of earth as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her "seductive gifts".

Pandora's Box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation in Hesiod's Works and Days. The "box" was actually a large jar given to Pandora, which contained all the evils of the world, although the particular evils, aside from plagues and diseases, are not specified in detail by Hesiod. When Pandora opened the jar, all its contents except for one item were released into the world. The one remaining item was Hope. Today, to open Pandora's box means to create evil that cannot be undone.

Stats

Diameter (mean): 81.4 ± 3.0 km

Semi-major axis: 141,720 km

Orbital Period: 0.629 days

Orbit

Pandora rotates synchronously with its orbital period, keeping one face pointed toward Saturn.

Pandora is the outer shepherd satellite of the F Ring.

The orbit of Pandora appears to be chaotic, as a consequence of a series of four 118:121 mean motion resonances with Prometheus. The most appreciable changes in their orbits occur approximately every 6.2 years, when the periapsis of Pandora lines up with the apoapsis of Prometheus and the moons approach to within about 1,400 kilometres.

Pandora also has a 3:2 mean-motion resonance with Mimas.

Physical Characteristics

Pandora is more heavily cratered than nearby Prometheus, and has at least two large craters 30 kilometres in diameter.

From Pandora's very low density and relatively high albedo, it seems likely that it is a very porous icy body. There is a lot of uncertainty in these values, however, so this remains to be confirmed.