Galerie de photos de Japet, satellite de la planète Saturne

<h1>PIA08377: A Scene of Craters</h1><div class="PIA08377" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This high-resolution view shows a vast range of crater sizes in the dark terrain of the leading hemisphere of Saturn's moon Iapetus.</p><p>Across the scene, a few small bright spots indicate fresh, rayed craters where impactors have punched through the thin blanket of dark material to the cleaner ice beneath.</p><p>The slight elevation on the bottom half of the image is part of the giant equatorial ridge that spans a wide fraction of Iapetus' circumference. The numerous craters on top of the ridge indicate that it is an old surface feature. </p><p>The mosaic consists of three image footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is centered on terrain near 0.5 degrees north latitude, 141.6 degrees west longitude. Image scale is approximately 22 meters (72 feet) per pixel. Illumination is from the left.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of approximately 63,000 kilometers (39,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 125 degrees.</p><p>Iapetus is 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08377" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08377: A Scene of Craters sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08377: A Scene of Craters sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08377: A Scene of Craters
<h1>PIA08378: Closest View of Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA08378" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>This mosaic of Cassini images shows the smallest details ever observed on Saturn's moon Iapetus. </p><p>Visible here are small craters as well as the base of a large mountain ridge located just south of the mosaic. At several places, bright spots about 20 to 50 meters (66 to 164 feet) across are visible. At these locations, more recent impactors have punched through the overlying blanket of dark material to reveal brighter, cleaner ice beneath.</p><p>Since the bright craters are relatively small and very shallow, it is likely that the dark blanket is rather thin in this area; it is assumed that its actual average thickness might be on the order of a foot. </p><p>The small crater at the upper left edge of the mosaic has a diameter of about 50 meters (164 feet) and shows a distinct ray pattern from excavated ice. This feature is so bright in comparison to the dark surrounding terrain that it had to be darkened manually so as not to look overexposed in this mosaic.</p><p>The mosaic consists of eight image footprints across the surface of Iapetus, presented here in simple cylindrical projection. The view is centered on terrain near 0 degrees north latitude, 164.9 degrees west longitude, within the dark leading hemisphere of Iapetus. Image scale is approximately 10 meters (33 feet) per pixel.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at distances ranging from 1,627 to 2,040 kilometers (1,011 to 1,268 miles) from Iapetus.</p><p>Iapetus is 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08378" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08378: Closest View of Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08378: Closest View of Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08378: Closest View of Iapetus
<h1>PIA08379: Towering Peaks of Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA08379" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/figures/PIA08379_fig1.jpg"></a><br>Figure 1</p><p>This stereo image, or anaglyph, shows huge mountains on Saturn's moon Iapetus, imaged by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its very close flyby in Sept. 2007. These mountains are located at the moon's equator in the westward-most part of the dark terrain. </p><p>Here, the brightness pattern on the surface is very complex. The mountain in the center of this view is part of the range informally named "the Voyager mountains" that were first detected on the limb of the moon in NASA Voyager spacecraft images. Interestingly, its eastern (right) flank is dark, while the other flanks are bright. This suggests that external material arriving on Iapetus from its orbital motion might play a role in the darkening process. One plausible source, the outer moons of Saturn, might provide a very thin but steady stream of very dark particles from the eastern direction as seen from this mountain.</p><p>The mosaic consists of six image footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is centered on terrain near 0.1 degree north latitude, 199 degrees west longitude. Image scale is approximately 46 meters (151 feet) per pixel.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow- angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007. Distances for the blue portion of the image range from 7,744 to 9,135 kilometers (4,812 to 5,676 miles) from Iapetus; distances for the red portion of the image range from 20,267 to 21,595 kilometers (12,593 to 13,418 miles) from the moon.</p><p>A separate, non-stereo version of the scene is included for comparison <a href="/figures/PIA08379_fig1.jpg">(figure 1)</a>.</p><p>Iapetus is 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08379" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08379: Towering Peaks of Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08379: Towering Peaks of Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08379: Towering Peaks of Iapetus
<h1>PIA08380: The Transition Zone</h1><div class="PIA08380" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Soaring above the alien, icy wastelands of Saturn's moon Iapetus, NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured a series of high-resolution images of the transition region from dark to bright terrain at southern middle latitudes that have been mosaicked together in this view. </p><p>An important characteristic of the terrain in the boundary region is that the isolated bright patches are mainly found on slopes facing toward the bright trailing hemisphere or toward the south pole. The same polarity is found within the bright terrain, where the dark material can be seen at the bottom of craters and on equator-facing slopes. These indicate that thermal effects are at play in painting the surface of Iapetus, 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across.</p><p>The mosaic consists of eight image footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is centered on terrain near 38.6 degrees south latitude, 171.3 degrees west longitude. Image scale is approximately 52 meters (171 feet) per pixel.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow- angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of approximately 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) from Iapetus.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08380" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08380: The Transition Zone sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08380: The Transition Zone sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08380: The Transition Zone
<h1>PIA08381: A Complex Transition</h1><div class="PIA08381" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The transition region from Saturn's moon Iapetus' dark leading hemisphere to its bright trailing hemisphere is a complicated patchwork of craters and highlands, with low elevations filled in by dark material.</p><p>An explanation of the pattern visible here might be key to a full understanding of the bright/dark dichotomy on Iapetus, 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across.</p><p>The view is centered on the equator and covers an area 711 kilometers wide by 417 kilometers tall (442 by 259 miles).</p><p>The giant equatorial ridge visible on the dark leading hemisphere is not present anymore in this region. Instead, large, isolated mountains more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) tall are spread along the equator. These mountains show bright western flanks, while the surrounding lowlands are generally dark. </p><p>The bright mountains at center right, surrounded by dark terrain, are also visible in the stereo view <a href="/catalog/PIA08379">PIA08379</a>. The region of Iapetus seen in this mosaic is also visible in the color full-disk mosaic <a href="/catalog/PIA08384">PIA08384</a>.</p><p>The mosaic is an orthographic projection consisting of 21 image footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is centered on terrain near 0.1 degree north latitude, 199 degrees west longitude, in the quadrant of Iapetus that faces away from Saturn. Image scale is approximately 83 meters (272 feet) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow- angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at distances ranging from 13,857 to 21,846 kilometers (8,610 to 13,574 miles) from Iapetus.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08381" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08381: A Complex Transition sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08381: A Complex Transition sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08381: A Complex Transition
<h1>PIA08382: Spotty Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA08382" lang="en" style="width:733px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>At high resolution, terrain in the transition region between bright and dark hemispheres on Saturn's moon Iapetus reveals a spotty appearance reminiscent of a Dalmatian. The bright material on the frozen surface of Iapetus, 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across, is water ice, and the dark material is likely carbonaceous in composition. </p><p>The dark material is preferentially found at the bottoms of craters. Bright water ice forms the "bed rock" on Iapetus, while the dark, presumably loose material apparently lies on top of the ice. </p><p>The terrain seen here is also visible in <a href="/catalog/PIA08383">PIA08383</a>, but it is viewed here at higher resolution.</p><p>The mosaic consists of two image footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is centered on terrain near 42 degrees south latitude and 209.3 degrees west longitude, on the anti-Saturn facing hemisphere. Image scale is approximately 32 meters (105 feet) per pixel.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at distances ranging from 5,363 to 5,884 kilometers (3,332 to 3,656 miles) from Iapetus.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08382" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08382: Spotty Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08382: Spotty Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08382: Spotty Iapetus
<h1>PIA08383: Speckled Surface</h1><div class="PIA08383" lang="en" style="width:496px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Dark material has coated the low-elevation terrain and the interiors of craters in the southern portions of the quadrant on Iapetus that faces away from Saturn. This is part of the boundary region separating the dark leading and bright trailing hemispheres. The dark coating is thought to be no more than a few tens of centimeters thick (10 centimeters equals 4 inches) and, as seen here, predominately appears on the northern-facing walls of craters in the south.</p><p>Farther south, the dark splotches are less numerous and appear almost absent at the highest latitudes (near the bottom of the frame). This is a strong indicator that thermal effects play a role in the darkening process of parts of Iapetus' surface: the colder the surface, the less common is the dark terrain. As on Earth, the higher latitudes on Iapetus receive less heating by sunlight.</p><p>At left, below center, the eastern rim of a great and ancient impact basin can be seen. With a diameter of almost 500 kilometers (310 miles), it is one of the largest impact structures on Iapetus, 1,468 kilometers (912 miles) across, and in the entire Saturn system. </p><p>This monochrome view shows terrain also seen in <a href="/catalog/PIA08384">PIA08384</a> but at higher resolution.</p><p>The mosaic consists of three narrow-angle camera footprints across the surface of Iapetus. This view is centered on terrain near 35.1 degrees south latitude, 218.5 degrees west longitude. Image scale is approximately 231 meters (758 feet) per pixel.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of approximately 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) from Iapetus and at a sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 31 degrees.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08383" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08383: Speckled Surface sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08383: Speckled Surface sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08383: Speckled Surface
<h1>PIA08384: The Other Side of Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA08384" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini captures the first high-resolution glimpse of the bright trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Iapetus. </p><p>This false-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) visible from Cassini on the outbound leg of its encounter with the two-toned moon in Sept. 2007. The central longitude of the trailing hemisphere is 24 degrees to the left of the mosaic's center. </p><p>Also shown here is the complicated transition region between the dark leading and bright trailing hemispheres. This region, visible along the right side of the image, was observed in many of the images acquired by Cassini near closest approach during the encounter.</p><p>Revealed here for the first time in detail are the geologic structures that mark the trailing hemisphere. The region appears heavily cratered, particularly in the north and south polar regions. Near the top of the mosaic, numerous impact features visible in NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft images (acquired in 1981) are visible, including the craters Ogier and Charlemagne.</p><p>The most prominent topographic feature in this view, in the bottom half of the mosaic, is a 450-kilometer (280-mile) wide impact basin, one of at least nine such large basins on Iapetus. In fact, the basin overlaps an older, similar-sized impact basin to its southeast.</p><p>In many places, the dark material--thought to be composed of nitrogen-bearing organic compounds called cyanides, hydrated minerals and other carbonaceous minerals--appears to coat equator-facing slopes and crater floors. The distribution of this material and variations in the color of the bright material across the trailing hemisphere will be crucial clues to understanding the origin of Iapetus' peculiar bright-dark dual personality.</p><p>The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of about 73,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) from Iapetus.</p><p>The color seen in this view represents an expansion of the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum visible to human eyes. The intense reddish-brown hue of the dark material is far less pronounced in true color images. The use of enhanced color makes the reddish character of the dark material more visible than it would be to the naked eye.</p><p>This mosaic consists of 60 images covering 15 footprints across the surface of Iapetus. The view is an orthographic projection centered on 10.8 degrees south latitude, 246.5 degrees west longitude and has a resolution of 426 meters (0.26 miles) per pixel. An orthographic view is most like the view seen by a distant observer looking through a telescope.</p><p>At each footprint, a full resolution clear filter image was combined with half-resolution images taken with infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters (centered at 752, 568 and 338 nanometers, respectively) to create this full-resolution false color mosaic.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08384" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08384: The Other Side of Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08384: The Other Side of Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08384: The Other Side of Iapetus
<h1>PIA08387: The View from Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA08387" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>While on final approach for its Sept. 2007 close encounter with Saturn's moon Iapetus, Cassini spun around to take in a sweeping view of the Saturn System.</p><p>Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) is the only major moon of Saturn with a significant inclination to its orbit. From the other major satellites, the rings would appear nearly edge-on, but from Iapetus, the rings usually appear at a tilt, as seen here.</p><p>This natural color mosaic consists of 15 red, green and blue spectral filter images acquired in five wide-angle camera footprints that swept across the scene.</p><p>Moons visible in this image: Dione (1,126 kilometers, or 700 miles across) at center left, Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) near the left side ansa (or ring edge), Mimas (397 kilometers, or 247 miles across) a speck against the ring shadows on Saturn's western limb, Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) against the bluish backdrop of the northern hemisphere, Tethys (1,071 kilometers, or 665 miles across) near the right ansa, and Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) near lower right.</p><p>The images were obtained on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of approximately 3.3 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Saturn at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 33 degrees. Image scale is about 195 kilometers (121 miles) per pixel on the planet.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08387" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08387: The View from Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08387: The View from Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08387: The View from Iapetus
<h1>PIA08403: Iapetan Geography</h1><div class="PIA08403" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Cassini soars above the many pits and basins in the rolling landscape of Saturn's moon Iapetus. This mosaic view looks out onto an area close to the northern bright/dark boundary, but still within the dark region, Cassini Regio.</p><p>Near upper left is a large crater with terraced walls, a mostly flat floor and a prominent group of peaks in its center. The sharp features make this likely one of the youngest craters in this area of Iapetus. Cassini imaged another similarly flat-floored and relatively fresh crater during its Dec. 2004 Iapetus flyby (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06171">PIA06171</a>).</p><p>The mosaic consists of three image footprints across the surface of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across). The view is centered on terrain near 43.3 degrees north latitude, 138 degrees west longitude. Image scale is approximately 75 meters (246 feet) per pixel.</p><p>The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at a distance of approximately 13,500 kilometers (8,400 miles) from Iapetus and at a sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 139 degrees. </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08403" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08403: Iapetan Geography sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08403: Iapetan Geography sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08403: Iapetan Geography
<h1>PIA08404: Flight over Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA08404" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p><a href="/archive/PIA08404.mov"></a><br />Click on the image for movie of<br>Flight over IapetusCassini sails low over the surface of Iapetus on approach to its close encounter with the enigmatic moon on Sept. 10, 2007. </p><p>Its flight takes it over the rugged, mountainous ridge along the moon's equator, where ancient, impact battered peaks -- some topping 10 kilometers (6 miles) in height -- are seen rising over the horizon and slipping beneath the spacecraft as it flies. </p><p>Frames used in this movie were acquired with the Cassini wide-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, as the intrepid robot soared past Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across), within a few thousand kilometers of the surface. Additional simulated images were inserted between the Cassini images in this movie in order to smooth the appearance of the movement, a scheme called interpolation.</p><p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08404" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08404: Flight over Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08404: Flight over Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08404: Flight over Iapetus
<h1>PIA08848: Brightside in View</h1><div class="PIA08848" lang="en" style="width:238px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft continues to image terrain on Iapetus that is progressively eastward of the terrain it has previously seen illuminated by sunlight.</p><p>The region seen here was imaged in reflected light from Saturn at excellent resolution in the close flyby on New Year's Eve 2004 (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06168">PIA06168</a>).</p><p>This view looks toward the equator of Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) on the moon's Saturn-facing side. North is up and rotated 11 degrees to the right.</p><p>The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Nov. 27, 2006 at a distance of approximately 2 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Iapetus. Image scale is 12 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08848" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08848: Brightside in View sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08848: Brightside in View sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08848: Brightside in View
<h1>PIA08902: Cloaking Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA08902" lang="en" style="width:511px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Darkness sweeps over Iapetus as the Cassini spacecraft watches the shadow of Saturn's B ring engulf the dichotomous moon. The image at left shows the unshaded moon, while at right, Iapetus sits in the shadow of the densest of Saturn's rings.</p><p>North on Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) is up and rotated eight degrees to the left.</p><p>The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 13, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Iapetus. Image scale is 14 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08902" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08902: Cloaking Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08902: Cloaking Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08902: Cloaking Iapetus
<h1>PIA08950: On the Bright Side</h1><div class="PIA08950" lang="en" style="width:489px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>The Cassini spacecraft views terrain on the bright, trailing side of Iapetus in natural color. This side of Iapetus starkly contrasts with the much darker leading hemisphere, and some of the dark material seen here in association with craters near the terminator is an extension of the leading hemisphere terrain.</p><p>This region was previously imaged by the spacecraft at a much finer resolution -- a spatial scale of less than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) per pixel -- during a flyby at the close of 2004. This terrain was then on the moon's night side at the time, and Cassini imaged it using weak, reflected light from Saturn (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06168">PIA06168</a>).</p><p>The present view looks toward Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) from about 24 degrees above the moon's equator.</p><p>Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 15, 2007 at a distance of approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 66 degrees. Scale in the original images is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel. The view has been magnified by a factor of three.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08950" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA08950: On the Bright Side sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA08950: On the Bright Side sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA08950: On the Bright Side
<h1>PIA09010: Unveiling Iapetus</h1><div class="PIA09010" lang="en" style="width:234px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>As the Cassini spacecraft sets up for its September 2007 close encounter with the two-toned moon Iapetus, the spacecraft is seeing more of the moon's bright, trailing hemisphere. This is a region Cassini has seen relatively little of until recently. The September encounter will provide high resolution images of this region, including the large crater seen here at about the five o'clock position.</p><p>North on Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles across) is up and rotated about 5 degrees to the right.</p><p>The image was taken using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of ultraviolet light centered at 338 nanometers. The view was acquired with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 3, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 53 degrees. Image scale is 13 kilometers (8 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09010" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09010: Unveiling Iapetus sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09010: Unveiling Iapetus sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09010: Unveiling Iapetus
<h1>PIA09756: Flyby Follow-up</h1><div class="PIA09756" lang="en" style="width:266px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Following Cassini's highly successful flyby of Iapetus in September 2007, the spacecraft repeatedly glanced back at the two-toned moon for some time. As Cassini receded from Iapetus, more and more of the bright trailing hemisphere rotated into view.</p><p>This image shows terrain farther west of that visible in <a href="/catalog/PIA08384">PIA08384</a>. Most notably in this view, it can be seen that the dark equatorial terrain reaches onto the moon's trailing side by the same amount on the western and eastern sides.</p><p>This view looks toward Iapetus (1,468 kilometers, or 912 miles, across) from about 10 degrees south of the moon's equator and is centered on 284 degrees west longitude. North is up and rotated 16 degrees to the right.</p><p>The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 19, 2007. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Iapetus and at a sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 32 degrees. Image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel.</p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.</p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09756" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09756: Flyby Follow-up sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09756: Flyby Follow-up sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09756: Flyby Follow-up
<h1>PIA09970: Exposing Iapetus' Dark Side</h1><div class="PIA09970" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Images taken with Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph shed some light on the dark side of Saturn's moon Iapetus. Scientists are trying to figure out what painted Iapetus' dark side. This is one of the biggest mysteries scientists are trying to answer during the upcoming Sept. 10, 2007, flyby. </p><p>The ultraviolet image on the left indicates water ice abundance across the surface: the bright north polar terrain (shown in red) is the iciest region in this view. Away from the pole, as the color shifts to blue, less water ice is present in the surface. The darkest terrain, which includes very little water ice, is shown in light blue. The dark sky background viewed during the observation is shown as purple in this color scheme.</p><p>The ultraviolet-light image was taken during a flyby in December 2004. A visible light image taken on the same date is shown on the right for reference (see <a href="/catalog/PIA06166">PIA06166</a>). </p><p>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph was designed and built at, and the team is based at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. </p><p>For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit <a href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov">http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm</a>. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph team home page is at <a href="http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini">http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini</a>. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at <a href="http://ciclops.org">http://ciclops.org</a>.</p><br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09970" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA09970: Exposing Iapetus' Dark Side sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA09970: Exposing Iapetus' Dark Side sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA09970: Exposing Iapetus' Dark Side
<h1>PIA11115: The Iapetus Atlas</h1><div class="PIA11115" lang="en" style="width:800px;text-align:left;margin:auto;background-color:#000;padding:10px;max-height:150px;overflow:auto;"><p>Presented here is a complete set of cartographic map sheets from a high-resolution Iapetus atlas, a project of the Cassini Imaging Team. </p><p>The map sheets form a three-quadrangle series covering the entire surface of Iapetus. As noted on the map, while both Saragossa Terra and Roncevaux Terra are bright regions on the moon's surface, they are distinct from each other in that the former has a slightly reddish color and the latter does not.</p><p>The map sheets cover the entire surface of Iapetus at a nominal scale of 1:3,000,000. The map data was acquired by the Cassini imaging experiment. The mean radius of Iapetus used for projection of the maps is 736 kilometers (457 miles). Names for features have been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).</p><p><b>Photomosaic Maps</b><br /><a href="/figures/PIA11115_full.jpg"></a><br />Roland Region (Ste-1)<br /><br /><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11115" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;" title="Voir l'image PIA11115: The Iapetus Atlas sur le site de la NASA">Voir l'image PIA11115: The Iapetus Atlas sur le site de la NASA.</a></div>
PIA11115: The Iapetus Atlas