Iapetus

Iapetus is a moon of Saturn that Giovanni Cassini discovered in 1671.[1]

Findings

Coal-dark terrain covers the leading half, reflecting just 0.03 to 0.05 of sunlight, against 0.5 to 0.6 on the trailing half, a contrast of about ten to one.[1] After the 2007 Cassini flyby, NASA attributes the dark hemisphere mainly to thermal segregation, in which warmed dark material loses its ice.[1] Mountains rising about 10 kilometres form a ridge that circles Iapetus at its equator.[1] JPL lists a mean radius of 734.30 kilometres for Iapetus.[2] ESA lists Iapetus's orbital period as 79.33 Earth days.[3]

Sources

  1. Iapetus | NASA Science. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text or images reused. Attribution: NASA.
  2. Planetary Physical Parameters | NASA JPL. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text reused. Attribution: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
  3. Saturn's moons | ESA. Licence: facts-only (Track B), no text reused. Attribution: European Space Agency.

Evidence as of .