Latest Iapetus Stories

Color Map of Mimas
2014-12-10 12:20:34

Almost immediately after NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft made their brief visits to Saturn in the early 1980s, scientists were hungry for more.

cassini at titan
2014-06-30 08:00:43

June 30 marks the 10th anniversary of the Cassini spacecraft’s arrival in the Saturn system, beginning a four-year primary mission that was extended on three occasions and ultimately led to the collection of more than 500 GB of data and the publication of well over 3,000 scientific papers.

Iapetus Ice Avalanches Explain Landslides Elsewhere
2012-07-30 04:26:15

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri have found that giant ice avalanches on Saturn's moon Iapetus could provide clues to slippage in other places in the Solar System.

2010-12-13 07:35:00

Scientists have an ingenious explanation for the strange ridge belting Saturn's outermost moon, Iapetus.

2009-12-10 15:15:38

Extensive analyses and modeling of Cassini imaging and heat-mapping data have confirmed and extended previous ideas that migrating ice, triggered by infalling reddish dust that darkens and warms the surface, may explain the mysterious two-toned "yin-yang" appearance of Saturn's moon Iapetus.

2009-10-07 06:58:00

PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings.

2009-10-07 05:40:00


2009-03-27 15:00:00

Astronomers have theorized that the unexplained terrain on one of Saturn's icy moons might have happened when the moon went from a relatively fast-spinning body to one spinning more slowly.

2008-06-16 19:40:00

Four students have won the Cassini Scientist for a Day contest, with most choosing Rhea, Saturn's second-largest moon, as the best place for scientists to study using NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

2008-02-19 12:05:00

Despite the incredible diversity of Saturn's icy moons, theirs is a story of great interaction. Mounting evidence suggests that some mechanism has spread the mysterious dark material found on several of the moons from one to another.

Latest Iapetus Reference Libraries

2004-10-19 04:45:41


Saturn's Moon Hyperion
2004-10-19 04:45:41

Saturn's moon Hyperion -- Hyperion is a moon of Saturn discovered by Bond and Lassell in 1848. It is the largest highly irregular (non-spherical) body in the solar system (Proteus is quite a bit larger but is almost spherical). It seems likely that Hyperion is a fragment of a larger body that was broken by a large impact in the distant past. The largest crater on its surface is approximately 120 kilometers in diameter and 10 kilometers deep. Like most of Saturn's moons, Hyperion's low...

2004-10-19 04:45:41

Saturn's moon Rhea -- Rhea is the second largest moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 1672 by Giovanni Cassini. Rhea is an icy body with a density of about 1.24 gm/cm3. This low density indicates that it has a rocky core taking up less than one-third of the moon's mass with the rest composed of water-ice. Rhea's features resemble those of Dione, with dissimilar leading and trailing hemispheres, suggesting similar composition and histories. The temperature on Rhea is -174°C in direct...

2004-10-19 04:45:41

Saturn's moon Dione -- Dione is a moon of Saturn discovered by Giovanni Cassini in 1684. It is composed primarily of water ice, but as the densest of Saturn's moons (aside from Titan, whose density is increased by gravitational compression) it must have a considerable fraction of denser material like silicate rock in its interior. Though somewhat smaller, Dione is otherwise very similar to Rhea. They both have similar compositions, albedo features and varied terrain. Both have dissimilar...

2004-10-19 04:45:41

The Planet Saturn -- in astronomy, 6th planet from the sun. Astronomical and Physical Characteristics of Saturn Saturn's orbit lies between those of Jupiter and Uranus; its mean distance from the sun is c.886 million mi (1.43 billion km), almost twice that of Jupiter, and its period of revolution is about 291/2 years. Saturn appears in the sky as a yellow, starlike object of the first magnitude. When viewed through a telescope, it is seen as a golden sphere, crossed by a series of...

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