Iapetus His dark materials
SATURN’S mottled moon Iapetus can blame the sun for its blemished complexion and split personality. Iapetus is a yin-yang satellite, with a black belly and a bright back. The two sides of its character were already evident to 17th-century astronomers, but not the source – which has been a mystery ever since.
Now new clues come from images showing that the dark spots appear mainly on the sunward-facing slopes of craters and mountains. This suggests that they are the sun’s handiwork, says the team analysing the images from Cassini. The team released photos of the 1470-kilometre wide…
