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Astronomy Picture of the Day
Hyperion: Sponge Moon of Saturn
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#77381
by
[z]Barbara Harris
@
27.07.2005 00:00
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Hyperion: Sponge Moon of Saturn
Explanation:
Why is Saturn's moon Hyperion textured like a sponge?
Recent high-resolution images
from the
robot Cassini spacecraft
orbiting
Saturn
show
Hyperion
to be an even stranger place than thought before.
Previously, it was known that the length of a day on
Hyperion
is unpredictable.
The moon's highly
elliptical orbit
around Saturn, its highly non-spherical shape,
and its locked 4:3
orbital resonance
with
Titan
torque Hyperion around so much it is hard to predict
when the Sun will rise
next.
The
newly imaged craters
on the unusually coarse surface
are surely the result of impacts, but for some reason have dark centers.
The low density of
Hyperion
indicates it might even be a
spelunker
's paradise, riddled with tremendous caverns.
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