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  • Hyperion’s Chaotic Spin Captured: A Stunning Image of Saturn’s Mysterious Moon
    Hyperion’s Chaotic Spin Captured: A Stunning Image of Saturn’s Mysterious Moon

    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

    The moon Hyperion tumbles as it orbits Saturn. Hyperion's (168 miles or 270 kilometers across) spin axis has a chaotic orientation in time, meaning that it is essentially impossible to predict how the moon will be spinning in the future. So far, scientists only know of a few bodies with such chaotic spins.

    The image was taken in green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Aug. 22, 2016.

    The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 203,000 miles (326,000 kilometers) from Hyperion and at a Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 10 degrees. Image scale is 1 mile (2 kilometers) per pixel.


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