Saturns Hyperion: A Moon with Odd Craters
Explanation:
What lies at the bottom of
Hyperion's strange craters?
Nobody knows. To help find out, the
robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting
Saturn swooped past the
sponge-textured moon in late 2005 and took an image of unprecedented detail.
That image,
shown above in false color, shows a remarkable world strewn with
strange craters and a
generally odd surface.
The slight differences in color likely show differences in surface composition.
At the bottom of most craters lies some type of unknown dark material.
Inspection of the
image shows bright features indicating that the dark material might be only
tens of meters thick in some places.
Hyperion
is about 250 kilometers across,
rotates chaotically,
and has a density so low that it might house a vast system of
caverns inside.
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.
