09/08/2026
Daphnis is one of the smallest moons of Saturn, only about 8 kilometers across, yet it has an outsized effect on the planetâs rings.
As it orbits within the A ring, Daphnis clears and maintains the Keeler Gap, a channel roughly 42 kilometers wide, through repeated gravitational pulls on nearby ring particles.
Each close pass disturbs the particles at the gapâs edges, generating visible waves and ripples that can rise several kilometers above the ring plane.
These structures were captured in detail by the Cassini mission and show that Saturnâs rings are not flat or static but dynamic systems constantly reshaped by gravity, even by a moon barely larger than a city.
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