Voyager image of Pandora.

PANDORA - MOON OF SATURN

Pandora was created by Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, from water and earth. She was the first woman on Earth. Her name means 'all gifted' and she was. Amongst her gifts were beauty from Aphrodite, musical ability from Apollo, and powers of persuasion from Hermes.

Pandora is famous for a box which she was compelled to keep but asked not to open. Eventually her curiosity overwhelmed her and she did, letting evils and disease escape into the world. After all the bad things had flown, left at the bottom of the box was Hope. Pandora was discovered by S. Collins and colleagues in 1980 using Voyager images.

Orbit

Pandora orbits 141,700 kilometres from Saturn. It is the outer shepherd satellite of Saturn's F-ring . The inner shepherd moon is Prometheus.

Pandora completes one orbit of Saturn in just over 15 hours. It's rotation period is unknown.

The orbits of Pandora, Janus, Epimetheus, and Mimas.

Physical properties

It is irregularly shaped, measuring 110 x 86 x 66 kilometres.

Magnetic field

No magnetic field has been detected.

Atmosphere

No atmosphere has been detected.

Interior

Like Prometheus and Epimetheus, Pandora's low density (700 kg m-3) is lower than water. It is thought that it contains ice and is probably very porous, with lots of empty spaces which give it a sponge-like structure.

Surface

There are a few 30 kilometre craters, but little surface detail can be seen. Pandora has an albedo of 0.9 and is one of Saturn's brighter moons.