The tiny and irregular shaped Epimetheus orbits Saturn with a similar moon called Janus, both of which may have formed when a larger body was broken up during a collision earlier in its history. Because the density of Epimetheus is less than that of water, it may be porous, perhaps just a pile of rubble held weakly together by gravity.

More Information

• Cassini-Huygens Website
  • Saturn’s Moons section
  • Epimetheus Information

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Pan
• Atlas
• Prometheus
• Pandora
• Janus
• Epimetheus
• Mimas
• Pallene and Methone
• Enceladus
• Telesto
• Tethys
• Calypso
• Helene
• Dione
• Polydeuces
• Rhea
• Titan
• Hyperion
• Iapetus
• Phoebe

It looks like the mission to Saturn is ramping up…today NASA released a new image from Cassini- Huygens less than a week after the last image. The outer visible ring is called the F-ring and in this image from May 1, 2004 you can see the two shepherd moons, Prometheus and Pandora, on either side of ring. The third moon in the image is Epimetheus.