對土星衛星潘星的好的近距離觀察，揭示了空間餡餅

Stunning close-up of Saturn’s moon, Pan, reveals a space empanada

對土星衛星潘星的好的近距離觀察， 揭示了空間餡餅

Astronomers have long known that Pan, one of Saturn’s innermost moons, has an odd look. Based on images taken from a distance, researchers have said it looks like a walnut or a flying saucer. But now, NASA’s Cassini probe has delivered stunning close-ups of the 35-kilometer-wide icy moon, and it might be better called a pan-fried dumpling or an empanada. Pan orbits Saturn in a gap in the planet’s rings and pulls material from them, so the ridge around it likely started accumulating soon after the moon formed, researchers say. The new images are only hours old, so scientists haven’t yet had time to estimate how wide and tall the ridge is. If material in the ridge is still loose, rather than somehow fused together, the ridge can maintain its steepness only because the moon’s gravity is so low. The latest pictures were obtained as Cassini conducts its final (and riskiest) flybys past Saturn’s moons and rings before it blazes into the planet’s atmosphere later this year.

天文學家對潘星已經知道很久了， 他是土星最裡面的即可衛星之一，

長得很詭異。 根據遠距離拍攝的照片顯示， 研究者聲稱它看起來就像一個胡桃木或者是是一個懸浮的茶託。 但是如今， NASA的凱西尼探測器輸送回有令人震驚的35公里寬的冰衛星， 並且它最好被稱作油炸的潘餃子放在一個餡餅上。 潘星圍繞著土星於一個空缺在行星的環上， 並且拉扯上面的物質。 所以這個邊緣似乎越來越快的加速， 隨著這個衛星的形成。 研究者說道。 新的圖像僅僅是數小時之前的， 所以科學家還並沒有分析出這個邊緣的寬和高度。 如果這些邊緣上物質還是如此的寬鬆的話， 而不是凝聚的更緊， 邊緣僅僅是因為行星的重力之低而維持其陡峭程度。 最新的圖片是凱西尼在他最後（同樣也是最危險的）靠近土星的衛星們並環繞他們最後飛入這顆行星的大氣層， 在今年晚些時候。