New Delhi: NASA's Cassini spacecraft imaged Saturn's intriguing moon Iapetus, revealing that the third-largest natural satellite of the gas giant is a world of contrast, with light and dark regions fitting together like cosmic puzzle pieces.
Data from the Cassini mission has shown that Cassini Regio on Iapetus is covered in a layer of dark, dusty material creating a stark contrast to the much brighter region that surrounds it, which leads to the moon's distinctive, two-toned appearance.
Cassini Regio is the enigmatic dark area that covers the leading half of Iapetus.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on March 11, 2017.
The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers) from Iapetus. Image scale is 9 miles (15 kilometers) per pixel.
Iapetus was discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, an Italian astronomer, in October 1671.
