New Pandora Image: Off Pandora's Shoulder
Continuing the series of small, inner satellite images started yesterday with Janus, CICLOPS has released this view of Pandora. Pandora orbits just outside the F ring. This image was discussed here earlier when it was taken last month. Very few craters are seen in this view, though that could be a result of the relatively low phase angle, as numerous craters were noted in Voyager images of this satellite. This image has a resolution of 2 km/pixel, though it has been magnified 2x to improve feature visibility.
posted by Jason Perry at 8:34 AM
2 Comments:
I don't know if Jason replied privately to you, Bruce... and bear in mind I don't know anything about what the Cassini teams are up to, but I would be surprised - very surprised - if Cassini had yet made enough observations of these two moons to say anything new about their rotation.
I would also be very surprised indeed if they turned out to be in anything but a very stable synchronous rotation. This close in, and with such elongated shapes (Prometheus especially), braking into synchronous rotation should be quite effective, though admittedly their close passes might excite a bit of libration.
I would expect that a lot of observations sufficient to pin down the orientation of the long axis at different times would be needed to say anything with certainty here. Actually stereo would be really useful, so if I could plan the observations I would try to space out the pics a bit more during these close passes, to get some stereo separation. But this isn't really my area! Just blethering.
Phil
Unfortunately, I don't really know. I haven't been paying too much attention to the discussions on small satellite rotational dynamics.
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