Saturn's Yin-Yang Moon
Date: 22 June 2004
Satellite: Cassini
Depicts: Iapetus
Copyright: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This Cassini image hints at the split personality of Saturn's 1436 kilometre-wide moon Iapetus. The Voyager spacecraft first imaged this curious yin/yang moon, with its light and dark hemispheres. The dark hemisphere is the side of Iapetus that leads in its orbit. In this view, both light and dark areas are visible.
The image was taken in visible light with the narrow angle camera on 23 May 2004, from a distance of 20.2 million kilometres from Iapetus. The image scale is 12 kilometres per pixel. The image was magnified to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
Last Update: 1 September 2019