Jan 1 2005
From The Space Library
NASA's Cassini spacecraft made a close pass of Saturn's moon Iapetus, flying within 123,400 kilometers (76,677 miles) on its closest approach, and coming about 10 times closer to the moon than Voyager 2 had come in 1981. Cassini's closest approach had occurred over the moon's mysterious dark terrain, which scientists had never before seen at close range. Scientists described the dark coating, the origin of which was unknown, as rich in carbon-based molecules. The dark terrain blankets the side of Iapetus that leads in the direction of the orbital motion around Saturn. Voyager's best images of Iapetus had a resolution of 8 kilometers (4.97 miles) per pixel, but Cassini had produced a resolution of about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) per pixel. (BBC News, “Cassini Passes 'Two-Faced' Moon,” 3 January 2005.)
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