Iapetus

Iapetus is the third-largest satellite of Saturn and the eleventh-largest in the Solar System. Iapetus has a bright hemisphere and a dark hemisphere. Because it is tidally locked, it always keeps the same face towards Saturn. The bright hemisphere is visible from Earth when Iapetus is on the western side of Saturn, and the dark hemisphere is visible when Iapetus is on the eastern side.

This image was pieced together from data taken by the Cassini spacecraft.

Image Cedit: NASA

4 thoughts on “Iapetus


  1. Can I ask a technical question?

    Is this a combo radarmap-colorcorrected something-something combo-tech-computer representation thing? Or is it natural sunlight?

    It’s more than JUST (attenuated by distance) sunlight. Right?

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