gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (DM Laughs)
Douglas Berry ([personal profile] gridlore) wrote2005-01-10 05:21 pm

That's no moon...

that's a space station.

Iapetus is weirder than we thought.

Iapetus moon bulges at the sides

The Cassini spacecraft's flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus has revealed a bizarre geological feature in its images: a bulging ridge at its equator. Mission scientists have started to release detailed images of the moon's surface, which is sharply divided into a bright half and a dark half. The ridge is around 13km (8 miles) high in some places - taller than Mount Everest, the tallest peak on Earth. Dr Carolyn Porco, leader of Cassini's imaging team, says Iapetus is one of the most interesting targets Cassini will visit during its four-year tour of Saturn.


Cassini image of the equatorial buldge
ext_32976: (Default)

[identity profile] twfarlan.livejournal.com 2005-01-11 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
Yep, that was a cool article. Didja catch this one regarding the first 99% confirmed photograph of an extrasolar planet? (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/aas_exoplanet_050110.html) I got it courtesy of [livejournal.com profile] sclerotic_rings.

[identity profile] gridlore.livejournal.com 2005-01-11 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I saw that. Very, very cool stuff.

Now we just have to find the Vilani at Barnard's Star...