Iapetus
Related Category: Astronomy: General
(p´ts), in astronomy, one of the 18 named moons, or natural satellites, of Saturn.
Iapetus
Saturn VIII
Iapetus ("eye AP i tus" ) is the seventeenth of Saturn's known satellites and the third largest: orbit: 3,561,300 km from Saturn diameter: 1460 km mass: 1.88e21 kg ...
Iapetus
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Iapetus
Saturn VI
Iapetus [eye-AP-i-tus] is one of the stranger moons of Saturn. Its density is similar to that of Rhea, indicating that it has a small allotment of rocky materials.
Iapetus is a heavily cratered body, and Cassini images have revealed large impact basins in the dark region, at least three of which are over 350 km wide.
Iapetus A satellite of Saturn orbiting at a mean distance of 3,562,000 kilometers. ICAO (abbr) = International Civil Aviation Organization. Usually pronounced as a word. ICAO Standard Atmosphere See standard atmosphere.
Iapetus
The ninth satellite of Saturn, about 850±100 km in radius; period 79d7h55m, e = 0.028, inclination to Saturn's orbital plane 14°.7. It has the most extreme variation in albedo of any satellite in the solar system (0.
Iapetus
Image of Iapetus taken by the Cassini spaceprobe in December 2004. The boundary between the dark and light hemispheres is at the top of the picture. Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Iapetus is 1400 km across.
Iapetus
The preceding images show the satellite Rhea, which is seen to have many impact craters, and Iapetus, which has one side that is 10 times darker than the other.
Iapetus is a strange half and half world, with one side as dark as asphalt, and the other side the colr of dingy snow.
Iapetus' frozen trailing hemisphere, and the uneven transition with the dark hemisphere on the limb. Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.
Iapetus which was discovered by Cassini in 1671, is another world made up almost entirely of water ice. Most of Saturn's moons orbit the planet on the same plane, the plain of the planet's equator.
Iapetus is half bright and half dark.
Pan is a tiny moon only about 12 miles in diameter. It is between rings in the so-called Encke Division.
Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora are shepherd moons because they keep rings in place.
Iapetus -- In Greek mythology, a son of Uranus and Gaea. Father of Atlas, Epimetheus, Menoetius, and Prometheus.
Ida -- In Greek mythology, the mountain on Crete where Zeus spent his childhood.
igneous rock -- Rock solidified from a molten state.
Iapetus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Iapetus, also Iapetos or Japetus , was a Titan , the son of Uranus and Gaia , and father of Atlas , Prometheus, Epimetheus , and Menoetius and through Prometheus, ...
Iapetus
This false-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus.
The Strange Tailing Side of Saturn's Iapetus NASA - October 10, 2007
2-Tone Saturn Moon Caught in Hi-Res National Geographic - October 9, 2007 ...
Iapetus was discovered by the Italian-French astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini in 1672. He correctly deduced that the trailing hemisphere is composed of highly reflective material while the leading hemisphere is much darker.
Titan,[b] Iapetus,[c] Rhea,[c] Tethys,[d] and Dione[d]
Five of Saturn's larger moons, discovered by Christiaan Huygens and Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
Ceres,[e] Pallas, Juno, and Vesta ...
The surface of Iapetus has not been studied in detail, but it shows a large asymmetry in reflectivity between its leading and trailing hemispheres.
And then there is Iapetus, with strange surface markings--half of it covered with some very dark material.
The outermost midsized moon is Iapetus (Figure 12.20). It orbits Saturn on a somewhat eccentric, inclined orbit with a semi-major axis of 3.6 million km. Its mass is about three quarters that of Rhea. Iapetus is a two-faced moon.
Campani, with which he discovered in 1671 Iapetus, the ninth in distance of Saturn's family of satellites; Rhea was detected in 1672 with a glass by the same maker of 34-ft.
The "front," or leading, side of Saturn's icy satellite Iapetus is covered in dark material of some kind, and an equatorial mountain range as high as 13 kilometers was recently discovered on this 1450-km diameter moon.
By increasing proximity to Saturn, the middle moons are Iapetus, Hyperion, Titan, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Enceladus, and Mimas.
The outer satellites Hyperion and Iapetus also consist mainly of water ice. Iapetus has a very dark region in contrast to most of its surface, which is bright.
SATURN S_RINGS SYSTEM MIMAS ENCELADUS TETHYS DIONE RHEA TITAN HYPERION IAPETUS PHOEBE JANUS EPIMETHEUS PANDORA CALYPSO HELENE TELESTO or SATURN S_RINGS SYSTEM MIMAS ENCELADUS TETHYS DIONE RHEA TITAN HYPERION IAPETUS PHOEBE JANUS EPIMETHEUS PANDORA ...
including Titan (the largest), Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Hyperion, Phoebe, Janus, Epimetheus, Pandora, Prometheus, Helene, Telesto, Atlas, Calypso, and Pan (the smallest named moon of Saturn).
List of geological features on Iapetus
List of craters on Puck
List of geological features on Miranda
List of geological features on Ariel
List of craters on Umbriel
List of geological features on Titania
List of geological features on Oberon ...
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Saturn has 62 known moons as of April 2009, the largest of which is Titan. Other major moons include Enceladus, Iapetus, and Mimas, the so-called "Death Star moon."
Resources
The Solar System: Moons: Saturn's Moons Saturn has 62 known moons.
Iapetus has a radius of about 180x140x112.5 km and is irregularly shaped. Hyperion orbits at about 1,481,100 km from Saturn. Its orbital period is 21.27 days. It was discovered by W. & G. Bond/W. Lassell in 1848.
Icy satellites Does the water ice moon Enceladus have an internal heat source that erases impact craters? Why is Iapetus white as snow on one half and black as asphalt on the other?
Cassini Education programs ...
Officially, the 22nd 23rd 24th* largest object in our solar system, weighing in behind Saturn's moon Iapetus, but well ahead of Uranus' Umbriel.
Some of the names are possibly familiar to you - Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Methone, Pallene, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Polydeuces, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Kiviuq, Ijiraq, ...
CASSINI, G. D.
Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712) was an astronomer born in Italy who later became a naturalized French citizen. He discovered four of (Tethys, Dione, Rhea, and Iapetus) and a dark division in rings (called the Cassini Division).
Saturn's known moons are (from nearest to furthest from the planet): Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Phoebe.
 See also: Saturn, Solar, Earth, Titan, Orbit
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