The brightening of Saturn's F ring

► The F ring is twice as bright during Cassini compared to the Voyager flybys. ► The F ring's equivalent depth is twice that obtained by Voyager 2. ► The F ring is three times as wide as it was during Voyager 1. ► These changes are out of phase with the orbital alignment of Prometheus. ► We propose a new model of the F ring's evolution to explain these findings.