Shepherd moon

A shepherd moon, also called a herder moon or watcher moon, is a small natural satellite that clears a gap in planetary ring material or keeps particles within a ring contained. The name is a result of their limiting the "herd" of the ring particles as a shepherd.

For the album by Enya, see Shepherd Moons.

Due to their gravitational influence, shepherd moons deflect ring particles from their original orbits due to proximity or through orbital resonances. This can carve gaps in the ring system, such as the Encke Gap maintained by Saturn's moon Pan, or lead to the confining of narrow ringlets, such as Saturn's F ring.

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