Cassini Beams Back New Image of Saturn’s Moon Iapetus

A new image of Saturn’s yin-yang moon, Iapetus, was recently captured by NASA’s Cassini probe, currently in its ‘Grand Finale’ phase.

This image of Iapetus was taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2017. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

This image of Iapetus was taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2017. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Iapetus, also known as Saturn VIII, was discovered on October 25, 1671, by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini.

Saturn’s third largest moon, Iapetus is 914 miles (1,471 km) across and has a density only 1.2 times that of liquid water.

It orbits at 2.2 million miles (3.56 million km) from Saturn and is in resonance with Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, which orbits at 759,200 miles (1.22 million km).

Iapetus is a world of contrast, with light and dark regions fitting together like cosmic puzzle pieces.

Cassini Regio on Iapetus is covered in a layer of dark, dusty material creating a stark contrast to the much brighter region that surrounds it.

This leads to the moon’s distinctive, two-toned appearance.

This image was acquired with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2017, at a distance of about 1.6 million miles (2.6 million km) from Iapetus.

The view looks toward Saturn-facing hemisphere of Iapetus.

North on Iapetus is up and rotated 20 degrees to the right.

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