Science, Vol.272, No.5261, 518-521, 1996
Observations of Saturn Inner Satellites During the May 1995 Ring-Plane Crossing
The 22 May 1995 Saturn ring-plane crossing was observed with the Hubble Space Telescope; the markedly reduced scattered light from the rings at this time allowed study of the small inner satellites of the Saturn system. Prometheus was further from its predicted location than expected based on uncertainties in the 1981 ephemerides propagated forward by 15 years. A body found orbiting near or within Saturn’s F ring is either an F-ring shepherd or a transient clump of dust within the F ring; given its approximate brightness, the clump theory is more likely.