Mind the gap

CASSINI SPACECRAFT, 16 JANUARY 2017

The tiny body seen here forging a path through Saturn’s A ring is the small moon Daphnis. The channel it moves through, the 42km-wide Keeler Gap, is created by the moon itself. A series of tiny wave-like features can be seen forming in the bottom edge of the gap, the result of the moon’s gravitational pull. This incredible view was captured by Cassini from just 28,000km, as it made one of its so-called ‘ring grazing’ flybys around the planet.