Saturn's moon Iapetus,composite Cassini image. On New Year's Eve 2004 the Cassini spacecraft passed Iapetus,taking a series of photographs which were combined into this mosaic. Iapetus is one of 34 satellites of Saturn,the Solar System's second largest planet. It is the third largest moon of Saturn,but orbits further out than most of the larger moons,at a distance of 3.5 million kilometres. It was originally discovered by Giovanni Cassini,the 17th century astronomer after whom the Cassini spacecraft was named. It is primarily composed of water ice and has a mean diameter of 1436 kilometres. The heavily cratered region which dominates this image is known as Cassini Regio | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / NASA |
Taille de l’image : | 2516 px × 2512 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |