Space · Moons
Pan
A moon of Saturn — An even more extreme flying-saucer shape than Atlas — orbits inside the Encke Gap of Saturn's A ring.
Quick facts
Parent planet
Diameter (mean)
28 km
Mass
4.95 × 10¹⁵ kg
6.73e-08 Moon masses
Mean orbital radius
133,584 km
Orbital period
0.575 Earth days
Discovery year
1990
Discoverer
Mark R. Showalter (Voyager 2 images)
Naming origin
Greek god of shepherds and the wild
Surface conditions
Pan has an even more pronounced equatorial ridge than Atlas, giving the moon a walnut-shape silhouette. It orbits within the Encke Gap of Saturn's A ring, maintaining the gap by gravitational interaction with ring particles. Pan was identified in 1990 by Mark Showalter in archival Voyager 2 images from 1981 — found by careful re-analysis nine years after the spacecraft passed.
Missions and observations
Every Saturn-system mission has had an opportunity to image or characterize Pan. The list below is the Saturn-system mission catalog; specific Pan encounters are documented in mission archives.
| Mission | Year at Saturn | Status |
|---|---|---|
|
Pioneer 11 NASA |
1979 | Completed |
|
Voyager 1 NASA |
1980 | Completed |
|
Voyager 2 NASA |
1981 | Completed |
|
Cassini-Huygens NASA/ESA/ASI |
2004 | Completed |
|
Dragonfly NASA |
2034 | On the way |
Naming etymology
Pan was the Greek god of shepherds, wild places, and rustic music. Adopted by the IAU in 1991.
Methodology & sources
Diameter, mass, and orbital parameters from JPL Solar System Dynamics — Physical Parameters. Discovery year and discoverer from the JPL Satellite Discovery Circumstances. Naming etymology from the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. Stylized SVG hero composed from NASA / JPL imagery as visual reference; no photographs are reproduced.