PIA06608: Hyperion Hoopla
 Target Name:  Hyperion
 Is a satellite of:  Saturn
 Mission:  Cassini-Huygens
 Spacecraft:  Cassini Orbiter
 Instrument:  ISS - Narrow Angle
 Product Size:  703 x 486 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Cassini Imaging Team
 Primary Data Set:  Cassini
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA06608.tif (76.82 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA06608.jpg (9.802 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

As it loops around Saturn, Cassini periodically gets a good view of Saturn's moon Hyperion. Hyperion chaotically tumbles around in its orbit and is the largest of Saturn's irregularly-shaped moons. New details about this oddball worldlet will certainly come to light in September, 2005, when Cassini is slated to approach Hyperion at a distance of 990 kilometers (615 miles). Hyperion is 266 kilometers (165 miles) across.

The images were taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera in October 2004 and February 2005, at distances ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 million kilometers (808,000 to 994,000 million miles) from Hyperion and at Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angles ranging from 42 to 66 degrees. Resolution in the original images was 8 to 10 kilometers (5 to 6 miles) per pixel. The images have been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Image Addition Date:
2005-03-18