January 7th 05, 08:40 PM
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=526
Saturn's Moon Iapetus Shows a Bulging Waistline
January 7, 2005
(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Images returned by NASA's Cassini spacecraft cameras during a New
Year's
Eve flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus (eye-APP-eh-tuss) show startling
surface features that are fueling heated scientific discussions about
their origin.
One of these features is a long narrow ridge that lies almost exactly
on
the equator of Iapetus, bisects its entire dark hemisphere and reaches
20 kilometers high (12 miles). It extends over 1,300 kilometers (808
miles) from side to side, along its midsection. No other moon in the
solar system has such a striking geological feature. In places, the
ridge is comprised of mountains. In height, they rival Olympus Mons on
Mars, approximately three times the height of Mt. Everest, which is
surprising for such a small body as Iapetus. Mars is nearly five times
the size of Iapetus.
Images from the flyby are available at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov,
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://ciclops.org .
Iapetus is a two-toned moon. The leading hemisphere is as dark as a
freshly-tarred street, and the white, trailing hemisphere resembles
freshly-fallen snow.
The flyby images, which revealed a region of Iapetus never before seen,
show feathery-looking black streaks at the boundary between dark and
bright hemispheres that indicate dark material has fallen onto Iapetus.
Opinions differ as to whether this dark material originated from within
or outside Iapetus. The images also show craters near this boundary
with
bright walls facing towards the pole and dark walls facing towards the
equator.
Cassini's next close encounter with Iapetus will occur in September
2007. The resolution of images from that flyby should be 100 times
better than the ones currently being analyzed. The hope is that the
increased detail may shed light on Iapetus' amazing features and the
question of whether it has been volcanically active in the past.
With a diameter of about 1,400 kilometers (890 miles), Iapetus is
Saturn's third largest moon. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique
Cassini
in 1672. It was Cassini, for whom the Cassini-Huygens mission is named,
who correctly deduced that one side of Iapetus was dark, while the
other
was white.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science
Mission
Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard
cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The European
Space Agency built and manages the development of the Huygens probe and
is in charge of the probe operations. The Italian Space Agency provided
the high-gain antenna, much of the radio system and elements of several
of Cassini's science instruments. The imaging team is based at the
Space
Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Contacts:
Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Preston Dyches (720) 974-5823
Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
NEWS RELEASE: 2005-004
Saturn's Moon Iapetus Shows a Bulging Waistline
January 7, 2005
(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Images returned by NASA's Cassini spacecraft cameras during a New
Year's
Eve flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus (eye-APP-eh-tuss) show startling
surface features that are fueling heated scientific discussions about
their origin.
One of these features is a long narrow ridge that lies almost exactly
on
the equator of Iapetus, bisects its entire dark hemisphere and reaches
20 kilometers high (12 miles). It extends over 1,300 kilometers (808
miles) from side to side, along its midsection. No other moon in the
solar system has such a striking geological feature. In places, the
ridge is comprised of mountains. In height, they rival Olympus Mons on
Mars, approximately three times the height of Mt. Everest, which is
surprising for such a small body as Iapetus. Mars is nearly five times
the size of Iapetus.
Images from the flyby are available at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov,
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://ciclops.org .
Iapetus is a two-toned moon. The leading hemisphere is as dark as a
freshly-tarred street, and the white, trailing hemisphere resembles
freshly-fallen snow.
The flyby images, which revealed a region of Iapetus never before seen,
show feathery-looking black streaks at the boundary between dark and
bright hemispheres that indicate dark material has fallen onto Iapetus.
Opinions differ as to whether this dark material originated from within
or outside Iapetus. The images also show craters near this boundary
with
bright walls facing towards the pole and dark walls facing towards the
equator.
Cassini's next close encounter with Iapetus will occur in September
2007. The resolution of images from that flyby should be 100 times
better than the ones currently being analyzed. The hope is that the
increased detail may shed light on Iapetus' amazing features and the
question of whether it has been volcanically active in the past.
With a diameter of about 1,400 kilometers (890 miles), Iapetus is
Saturn's third largest moon. It was discovered by Jean-Dominique
Cassini
in 1672. It was Cassini, for whom the Cassini-Huygens mission is named,
who correctly deduced that one side of Iapetus was dark, while the
other
was white.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science
Mission
Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard
cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The European
Space Agency built and manages the development of the Huygens probe and
is in charge of the probe operations. The Italian Space Agency provided
the high-gain antenna, much of the radio system and elements of several
of Cassini's science instruments. The imaging team is based at the
Space
Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
Contacts:
Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Preston Dyches (720) 974-5823
Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
NEWS RELEASE: 2005-004