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Surface composition of Hyperion

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Abstract

Hyperion, Saturn’s eighth largest icy satellite, is a body of irregular shape in a state of chaotic rotation1,2. The surface is segregated into two distinct units. A spatially dominant high-albedo unit having the strong signature of H2O ice contrasts with a unit that is about a factor of four lower in albedo and is found mostly in the bottoms of cup-like craters. Here we report observations of Hyperion’s surface in the ultraviolet and near-infrared spectral regions with two optical remote sensing instruments on the Cassini spacecraft at closest approach during a fly-by on 25–26 September 2005. The close fly-by afforded us the opportunity to obtain separate reflectance spectra of the high- and low-albedo surface components. The low-albedo material has spectral similarities and compositional signatures that link it with the surface of Phoebe and a hemisphere-wide superficial coating on Iapetus.

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Figure 1: Image and spectra from Cassini’s UVIS.
Figure 2: Spectra and models from Cassini’s VIMS.
Figure 3: Compositional map of a region of Hyperion.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the many people in the Cassini Project whose skills and diligence have made the mission to Saturn a success. The Cassini Project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center, MS 245-6,

    D. P. Cruikshank

  2. USRA/SOFIA, NASA Ames Research Center, MS 211-3, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA,

    A. W. Meyer

  3. SETI Institute, 515 N. Whisman Road, Mountain View, California 94043, USA,

    J. B. Dalton & C. M. Dalle Ore

  4. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA,

    J. Bauer, A. R. Hendrix, C. J. Hansen, B. J. Buratti, R. M. Nelson, K. H. Baines & D. L. Matson

  5. DLR, Institute for Planetary Exploration, Rutherfordstrasse 2, D-12489 Berlin, Germany,

    K. Stephan & R. Jaumann

  6. INAF-IASF Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica,,

    G. Filacchione, A. Coradini, P. Cerroni, F. Tosi, F. Capaccioni & V. Formisano

  7. INAF-IASF Istituto dello Spazio Interplanetario, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, 00133 Roma, Italy,

    G. Bellucci

  8. USGS, Mail Stop 964, Box 25046, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA,

    R. N. Clark

  9. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA,

    R. H. Brown

  10. Space Science Institute NW, 22 Fiddler’s Road, Winthrop, Washington 98862-0667, USA,

    T. B. McCord

  11. Cornell University, 418 Space Sciences Building, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA,

    P. D. Nicholson

  12. University of Nantes, BP 92208, 2 rue de la Houssinière, 44072 Nantes Cedex 3, France,

    C. Sotin

  13. Département Recherche Spatial, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 Place Jules Jannsen, 95129 Meudon Cedex, France,

    M. Combes, B. Sicardy & P. Drossart

  14. Université de Paris Sud-Orsay, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatial, Batiment 120, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France,

    J.-P. Bibring & Y. Langevin

  15. INAF-OAC Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Salita Moiariello 16, I-80131 Napoli, Italy,

    V. Mennella

Authors
  1. D. P. Cruikshank
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  2. J. B. Dalton
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  3. C. M. Dalle Ore
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  11. F. Tosi
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  12. F. Capaccioni
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  13. R. Jaumann
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  14. B. J. Buratti
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  15. R. N. Clark
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  16. R. H. Brown
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  17. R. M. Nelson
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  18. T. B. McCord
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  19. K. H. Baines
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  20. P. D. Nicholson
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  21. C. Sotin
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  22. A. W. Meyer
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  23. G. Bellucci
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  24. M. Combes
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  25. J.-P. Bibring
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  26. Y. Langevin
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  27. B. Sicardy
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  28. D. L. Matson
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  29. V. Formisano
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  30. P. Drossart
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  31. V. Mennella
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. P. Cruikshank.

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Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Cruikshank, D., Dalton, J., Ore, C. et al. Surface composition of Hyperion. Nature 448, 54–56 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05948

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