CASSINI CLOSES IN ON SATURN’S TUMBLING MOON HYPERION

By Ben on August 26, 2011 at 5:16 pm | In Blog Posts | No Comments

fyi:
–Ben

August 26, 2011

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Yesterday, Cassini captured new images of Saturn’s moon Hyperion during
its 2nd closest encounter with this deeply cratered body. Closest approach registered at 15,000 miles.

Hyperion is a small moon … just 168 miles across … orbiting between Titan and Iapetus. It has an irregular shape and surface appearance, and it rotates chaotically as it tumbles along in orbit, making it impossible to say just exactly what terrain we would image during this flyby.

To see how it all turned out, go to

http://www.ciclops.org/view_event/160/Hyperion_Rev_152_Raw_Preview

And the adventure continues. Cassini’s next flyby of Hyperion will be on September 16, 2011, when it passes the tumbling moon at a distance of about 36,000 miles.

Enjoy!

Carolyn Porco
Cassini Imaging Team Leader
Director, CICLOPS
Space Science Institute
Boulder, CO

http://ciclops.org

http://twitter.com/carolynporco

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