Distant Hyperion
The Cassini spacecraft gazes at Saturn's far-off moon Hyperion.
This view was obtained at a distance of approximately 324,000 miles (521,000 kilometers) from Hyperion and at a Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 90 degrees. Hyperion (168 miles, or 270 kilometers across) has an irregular shape, and it tumbles through its orbit: that is, it does not spin at a constant rate or in a constant orientation. (A standard reference latitude-longitude system has not yet been devised for this moon.) See Encountering Hyperion and Cosmic Blasting Zone to learn more and to watch a movie.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 25, 2012. Scale in the original image was 2 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel. The image was contrast enhanced and magnified by a factor of 1.5 to enhance the visibility of surface features.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
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