16 October 2007
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA recently published an intriguing movie of Iapetus, Saturn's mysterious moon. The movie was produced from images obtained by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft during its approach to Iapetus on 10 September 2007.
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The images were taken while Cassini was flying low over the surface of Iapetus on to its close encounter with the moon. The flight took the spacecraft over the rugged, mountainous ridge along the moon's equator, where ancient, impact battered peaks, some reaching 10 km in height, are seen rising over the horizon and slipping beneath the spacecraft as it flies.
The images were taken with Cassini's wide-angle camera on 10 September 2007, as the Saturn orbiter glided past Iapetus (1,468 km across), within a few thousand kilometers of the moon's surface. Additional simulated images were incorporated in this movie in order to smooth the appearance of the movement, a technique known as interpolation.
Further Reading
Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist