Jagged looking shadows stretch away from vertical structures of
ring material created by the moon Daphnis in this image taken as
Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox. Daphnis (8
kilometers, or 5 miles across) is a bright dot casting a thin
shadow just to the left of the center of the image. The moon has
an inclined orbit, and its gravitational pull perturbs the
orbits of the particles of the A ring forming the Keeler Gap's
edge and sculpting the edge into waves having both horizontal
(radial) and out-of-plane components. See PIA11655 to learn more
and to see a movie of this process. The novel illumination
geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun's angle to the
ringplane and causes out-of-plane structures to cast long
shadows across the rings. These scenes are possible only during
the few months before and after Saturn's equinox, which occurs
only once in about 15 Earth years. To learn more about this
special time and to see movies of moons' shadows moving across
the rings, see PIA11651 and PIA116