Iapetus. Artwork of Iapetus,the third largest of Saturn's moons. Iapetus was discovered by Cassini in 1671. It is three million kilometres away from Saturn (centre right). It measures 1460km in diameter and is predominantly formed of water ice. It is unusual because its leading face is dark in colour,and the other face is bright. The dark material may have come from within the moon,or may have been deposited from elsewhere,possibly from the nearby moon Phoebe. This image is based on maps of Iapetus obtained by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1981. It will be visited by the Cassini probe in 2004 | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / Butler, Chris |
Taille de l’image : | 4677 px × 3403 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |