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Saturn’s moon Iapetus is the Yin-Yang of the Solar System

13 September 2007

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Cassini zooms in, for the first time, on the patchy, bright and dark mountains on Saturn's two-toned moon, Iapetus. The mountains were originally identified in images from the NASA Voyager spacecraft taken more than 25 years earlier. The image was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of Iapetus.

The terrain seen here is located on the equator of Iapetus at approximately 199° West, in the transition region between the moon's bright and dark hemispheres. North is up in the image.

The image was taken on 10 September 2007, with Cassini's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 9240 km from Iapetus. Image scale is 55 m per pixel.

Credits: NASA/ JPL/ Space Science Institute

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Dark material splatters the walls and floors of craters in the surreal, frozen wastelands of Saturn's moon, Iapetus. This image shows terrain in the transition region between the moon’s dark leading hemisphere and its bright trailing hemisphere. The view was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of the two-toned Saturn moon.

The image was taken on 10 September 2007 with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 6030 km from Iapetus. Image scale is 36 m per pixel.

Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

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Cassini surveys a bright landscape coated by dark material on Iapetus. This image shows terrain in the transition region between the moon’s dark leading hemisphere and its bright trailing hemisphere. The view was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of the two-toned Saturn moon.

The image was taken on 10 September 2007 with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 5260 km from Iapetus. Image scale is 32 m per pixel.

Credits: NASA/ JPL / Space Science Institute

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HI-RES GIF (Size: 365 kb)

This stunning close-up shows mountainous terrain reaching about 10 km in height along the unique equatorial ridge of Iapetus. The view was acquired during Cassini's only close flyby of the two-toned Saturn moon.

Above the middle of the image can be seen a place where an impact has exposed the bright ice beneath the dark overlying material.

The image was taken on 10 September 2007 with the Cassini's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 3870 km from Iapetus. Image scale is 23 m per pixel.

Credits: NASA/ JPL/ Space Science Institute

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