Rorschach moon

[mmcirvin]

Now this is what we came to Iapetus to see.

I think these are the "Voyager mountains" (so called because the Voyager spacecraft saw them from a long way off), where the equatorial ridge seems to emerge from the dark stuff.

Lots more there.

Assemblages and an animation.

Comments

[nexstarman.livejournal.com]

Whoah.....

Rorschach moon

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, extra-terrestrial cookies & cream!

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

What in the hell is going on up there, anyway?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I think your guess is as good as anyone's at this point. it is profoundly weird. As Lakdawalla said, it's as if some colossal ball of soft black goop splatted into Iapetus at low speed once upon a time. And then there's the ridge, which is almost, but not really, coincident with the part of Iapetus that has the black stuff, yet seems to be much older.

I used to think it looked like the black stuff sprayed out of the ridge. But the varying extents of the two would indicate against that, I guess.