Posted by Davin Flateau on 13 Jul 2005 at 9:02 am.
Filed under Astronomy.
Lots going on here in the CyberDome, but the postings should become more regular soon! We have the shuttle launch today, hopefully, and the closest Cassini flyby of the mission so far tomorrow when it flies by Enceladus!
Yesterday, NASA released a movie of Cassini’s encounter with Saturn’s moon Hyperion. As the moon orbits Saturn, the irregularly-shaped moon tumbles through space, as you can see in the movie.
The odd-shaped 160 mile-wide moon was found to have a low density - it would float in water if you could find a bath tub big enough to plop it in! The low density means that it’s probably made of mostly water ice and cavities of empty space.
Cassini will get an even better look at the moon when it flies by on September 26.
