Cassini reveals two faces of Iapetus

Cassini has sent back a mountain-load of work for its mission scientists, having shot literally hundreds of pictures of Saturn's moon Iapetus on its fly-by this weekend. The dark and the light: Saturn's moon Iapetus The pictures show the stark contrast between the moon's two hemispheres. One is described as being as black as …

[Michael Sheils]

Iapetus, the ying-yang moon

Am I the only one thinking of a giant ying-yang symbol in space, perhaps it's a message our undercover dolphin overloads have sent us?

[Tim Parker]

Link to September shots

http://ciclops.org/ir_index.php?id=27

Sure is purty ain't she ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not everything in back and white...

2008 Guinness advert ahoy!

[J]

To me...

It's the Oreo moon! If our own is made of cheese, why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

Buggy G Riphead

Iapetus, or Future Sound of London album artwork circa 1994? You decide.

[Luther Blissett]

"plenty here to keep many scientists busy for many years"

Busy doing what exactly?

Parkinson's Law - work expands to fill the time available.

[Anonymous Coward]

Black and white

Either something black has crashed onto an otherwise white Iapetus (or vice versa) or it is two different moons that collided and stuck together.

And did Cassini remain in Safe Mode for six more reboots before coming back to normal? Must have done eventually because the pics don't have "Safe Mode" in each corner.

[TS]

Should have named it Lokai

It's probably been hiding in our solar system for 50,000 years. We need to keep a lookout in case a white and black moon comes looking for it.

[Nick Leverton]

Unofficial pics

Including brief but stunning animation of the mountain belt flypast:

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001131/

[davide]

about a real as a cheese moon!

how come NASA always has a problem when sending crucial pictures like when flying over Cydonia? The data link breaks down... not to mention their preventive lack of color. Arthur, say something! Guess you already did in your novel, Space Odyssey. Ciao to all, may the truth be known!

[Steve Roper]

Finally get a look at Arthur's Moon

As I was looking into one of those inky black blobs in the white section, I thought, "Oh my God, it's full of stars!" Or is that just because I didn't get any sleep last night? ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Michael Sheils

How does one overload a dolphin overlord?

"....perhaps it's a message our undercover dolphin overloads have sent us?"

[Nick Leverton]

More pics

It looks for all the world^WSaturn as if a gob of soot hit a marshmallow:

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001136/

[MacroRodent]

Wrong explanation

"galactic cosmic ray hit"

No, it was just the stargate opening and closing. The probe was caught by the Black Monolith in the middle of the white are, shipped to the aliens for examination, taken apart, put together, and returned back to the same time and space. Sorry for the small glitch in reassembly that caused it to enter safe mode...