As it loops around Saturn, Cassini periodically gets a good view of
Saturn's moon Hyperion. Hyperion chaotically tumbles around in its orbit
and is the largest of Saturn's irregularly-shaped moons.
New details about this oddball worldlet will certainly come to light in
September, 2005, when Cassini is slated to approach Hyperion at a distance
of 990 kilometers (615 miles). Hyperion is 266 kilometers (165 miles)
across.
The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft
narrow-angle camera in October 2004 and February 2005, at distances
ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 million kilometers (808,000 to 994,000 million
miles) from Hyperion and at Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angles
ranging from 42 to 66 degrees. Resolution in the original images was 8 to
10 kilometers (5 to 6 miles) per pixel. The images have been
contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page,
http://ciclops.org.
