Saturn's moon Iapetus,composite Cassini image. Iapetus 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 light illuminating the moon comes from Saturn,rather than the Sun. Consequently a long exposure was used,leading to the smearing of the background stars | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / NASA |
Taille de l’image : | 2511 px × 2511 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |