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Flight over Saturn's moon Iapetus

Where's the black monolith?
 
The Door to Saturn, I'm gonna be reading that very story by Clark Ashton Smith at break time at work tonight!

Nice pic!
 
Man!

That moon has got a really bad case of sooty-mold on its right side.

They should really get some fungicide on that ASAP. :p
 
The contrast between the white and the black are striking- there is almost no in-between on the surface. Its either white OR its black... not both.
 
Some scientist think that the dark side was formed by dust being blown off Phoebe... it also has this huge 12 mile wide ridge, that makes it look somewhat like a walnut lol...I still think scientist should be concentrating on Europa right now though, the fact that it could and probably does have a vast ocean underneath it's surface is mind boggaling...Also, the cracks on Europa's surface have brownish stains, which could suggest organic matter...

-Gabe
 
Some scientist think that the dark side was formed by dust being blown off Phoebe

That was before this photo- plus, dust would not have such a sharp division with the lighter surface...

... plus, this spacecraft has already shown liquid water exists on a moon around saturn...
... Enceladus...
060310_saturn_big.jpg


If we concentrated on europa we would have never found that...
 
frozen water though...
 
  • #10
Some scientist think that the dark side was formed by dust being blown off Phoebe... it also has this huge 12 mile wide ridge, that makes it look somewhat like a walnut lol...I still think scientist should be concentrating on Europa right now though, the fact that it could and probably does have a vast ocean underneath it's surface is mind boggaling...Also, the cracks on Europa's surface have brownish stains, which could suggest organic matter...

-Gabe

Iapetus is phase-locked, meaning the same side always faces Saturn (like the Earth's moon does to the Earth). The dark side is dust deposited preferentially on the forward-facing side. The equatorial ridge is probably due to the matter Iapetus is picking up being concentrated nearly in a plane (the rings are very thin), and piling up there.

The moon Atlas is a much smaller moon, and also exhibits a very pronounced equatorial ridge. Additionally, the magnitude of the equatorial ridge of Atlas is consistent with its Roche lobes, meaning if the ridge were any higher, there wouldn't be sufficient gravity to hold it down on Atlas.
 
  • #11
frozen water though...

Nah, google it. They found liquid water gysers. Neat stuff!

The dark side is dust deposited preferentially on the forward-facing side. The equatorial ridge is probably due to the matter Iapetus is picking up being concentrated nearly in a plane (the rings are very thin), and piling up there.

But wouldnt that have various areas of dust density and introgression? I mean, that would have various areas where they bleed into each other. There is no introgression, that’s what the news releases said. Its either black or its white. Dust I don’t think could do that.
 
  • #13
Nah, google it. They found liquid water gysers. Neat stuff!
that far from earth though?
 
  • #14
Scientists have found evidence that cold, Yellowstone-like geysers of water are issuing from a moon of Saturn called Enceladus, apparently fueled by liquid reservoirs that may lie just tens of yards beneath the moon's icy surface.

The surprising discovery, detailed in Friday's issue of the journal Science, could shoot Enceladus to the top of the list in the search for life elsewhere in our solar system. Scientists described it as the most important discovery in planetary science in a quarter-century.
bcol_060308_geysers_1p.standard.jpg
.... whole article here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11736311/
 
  • #15
I always thought that triton was the only moon with geysers, but I guess I was wrong...wait, no, those are smoke plumes, are they not? I've still got my eyes on Europa though...of course I realize though that a mission involving drilling through the surface is probably a lot more complicated than it sounds buts still...I know it would take a lot of work... maybe I watch too many movies, but I remain totally conviced that there very well could be some form of life down there...and enceladus too; We now know that microbeal life can exists in the harshest, darkest reaches, and that in fact, probably started out that way...so in reality, we have a few good planets that wouldn't hurt to further focus on.

-Gabe
 
  • #16
I completely agree with you on Europa. Its probably the single most interesting body in the solar system. NASA actually had a mission in the drawing board to go to that moon, but I hear it was cut sometime recently due to budget restraint

to quote one thing from somewhere i have forgotten:

“NASA: the budget is the limit”
 
  • #17
NASA actually had a mission in the drawing board to go to that moon, but I hear it was cut sometime recently due to budget restraint

That's unfortunate...I remain confident though that we'll make it there within our lifetimes, maybe even within the next 20 years ???

Yeah, the Europa thing is just a personal facination with me lol. I've read a little about that moon, and I guess it just stands out the most for me. I don't know how far a machine is capable of drilling, but scientist estimate that the crust is a few kilometers thick, and the ocean may be internally heated...It's facinating to think how many bodies out there are still geologically active!
 
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