The European Space Agency (ESA) recently released a stunning photo taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's sponge-like moon Hyperion.
Although Cassini snapped the photo way back in 2005, the ESA only released the image recently after combining views from Cassini's infrared, green and ultraviolet camera filters. Scientists also enhanced the surface features for this composite image for an unprecedented look at this celestial body.
Cassini captured the image during a flyby at a distance of around 38,000 miles. In the photo, Hyperion resembles a sea sponge floating around in the deep and dark depths of the ocean.
Cassini, however, got more than just a photo of Hyperion: the moon also blasted the spacecraft with a 200-volt electric shock. It turns out that Hyperion collects charged particles from space and the sun, as well as particles in Saturn's magnetic field: this makes the moon's surface electrostatically charged. Cassini picked up the blast on its scientific instruments, but, fortunately, Cassini can handle such a shock and there was no damage to its equipment. Instead, it collected valuable information and data from the event.
"Surface charging as a fundamental phenomenon affecting planetary objects is currently not well understood and while it has been observed on Earth's Moon, the Saturn system presents us with an opportunity to study this effect in an environment where many parameters are completely different," says Geraint Jones of the University College of London. "Our observations show that this is also an important effect at outer planet moons and that we need to take this into account when studying how these moons interact with their environment."
The ESA describe Hyperion's shape as "a bit like a potato." It's also one of the largest irregular shaped bodies in the solar system and the first odd-shaped moon ever discovered. Scientists believe that its sponge-like features come from it's low density. It also has an orbit around Saturn that scientists call "chaotic."
"Because of these properties the entire moon is porous, like a sponge, with well-preserved craters of all shapes and sizes packed together across its surface," writes the ESA on its website. "Scientists think that this moon is mostly made up of water ice, with small amounts of rock."
[Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute ]
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