Explanation: What lies at the bottom of Hyperion's strange craters? To help find out, the robot Cassini spacecraft that once orbited Saturn swooped past the sponge-textured moon and took images of unprecedented detail. A six-image mosaic from the 2005 pass, featured here in scientifically assigned colors, shows a remarkable world strewn with strange craters and an odd, sponge-like surface. At the bottom of most craters lies some type of unknown dark reddish material. This material appears similar to that covering part of another of Saturn's moons, Iapetus, and might sink into the ice moon as it better absorbs warming sunlight. Hyperion is about 250 kilometers across, rotates chaotically, and has a density so low that it likely houses a vast system of caverns inside.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: sputniki Saturna Publikacii so slovami: sputniki Saturna
Sm. takzhe: Stereo-Elena Sputnik Saturna Elena v cvete Yapet: sputnik Saturna so strannoi poverhnost'yu Saturn, Tefiya, kol'ca i teni Sputniki Saturna za predelami ego kolec Raznocvetnyi sputnik Saturna Yapet: stereofotografiya Saturn i shest' sputnikov Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>