At first glance, no one would say that this is a planetary satellite. What did you see at first glance? Dumplings, mushrooms, ravioli?

Pan, the innermost of Saturn's known moons, orbits the planet through a gap in one of Saturn's rings. It completes an orbit at an altitude of 83,000 miles (134,000 km) every 13.8 hours. These two images from the Cassini spacecraft show how the spacecraft's perspective changes as it passes within 15,300 miles (24,600 km) of Pan. This was the spacecraft's closest encounter with Pan and improved the level of detail seen on the small satellite in previous observations.

The ridge around Pan's equator is similar to Saturn's moon Atlas, giving the moon its distinctive dumpling shape.

Pan was discovered in 1990 by M.R Showalter using images taken nine years earlier by the Voyager 2 spacecraft.

Image description:

Two black-and-white images of Saturn's moon Pan. The two images are taken from different perspectives: the one on the left appears to have been taken from above the moon, while the one on the right appears to have been taken from below. There is a flat ridge at the centre of the moon and what appear to be etched lines on its surface.

I would also like to point out that Pan's name is based on mythology. In fact, if I tell you that Pan is the cause of the word panic that we use today, click to satisfy your curiosity.