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Cassini Shows Close Up of Iapetus

Posted by michael on from the looks-rocky dept.

dazza101 writes "The Cassini spacecraft passed within 72,000 kms of the Saturn moon Iapetus yesterday, taking a series of spectacular images of this intriguing moons rugged surface. An excellent prelude to what promises to be one of the major stories of the new year, the plunge of the Huygens probe into Titan's atmosphere on January 24."

5 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Arthur C. Clarke and Iapetus. by NarrMaster · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke described Iapetus as having a black circle painted on it, with a white circle within.

    When one of the Voyager probes photographed Iapetus, a "circular" black area was found with a smaller white area within.

    Why is this interesting? 2001 was published in 1968. The Voyager probes didn't visit Jupiter until 1980 (V1) and 1981 (V2).

    --
    That's right. All your base.
    1. Re:Arthur C. Clarke and Iapetus. by deglr6328 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Carl Sagan, who was on the Voyager imaging
      team, sent him a JPL photo (he was a member on the voyager team) with a note scribbled on the back. it said: "Thinking of you"....

      --
      - "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
  2. Re:Nice rock but... by dazza101 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The first look at a moon with its own atmosphere that may resemble the atmosphere of the early Earth?

  3. Iapetus Ring by FrostedWheat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've noticed in a lot of the images, there appears to be a ring of mountains around most of Iapetus's equator: Here, here and here.


    I'm no scientest, but is it possible that this moon once had a ring system like Saturn itself? Over time the ring particles fell out of orbit and formed the mountains along the equator.

  4. Re:If that's no space station, what is it? by Angry+Toad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Another feature I'm quite curious about is this globe-spanning ridge. I haven't seen any mention of it anywhere yet.

    It seems (though I may be wrong) to sit dead-center on the darkened portion of the moon and span much of the length of the dark part as well. Is there a connection perhaps? I'd be interested in the opinions of any planetary astronomers.