Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Iapetus' leading hemisphere and 'snowman'

Iapetus' leading hemisphere and 'snowman'
Iapetus' leading hemisphere and 'snowman' Cassini took this distant photo of Iapetus on 27 November 2006. On the left is the dark terrain of Cassini Regio, on Iapetus' leading hemisphere; toward the right, the dark material breaks up into a complicated boundary with the light terrain of Iapetus' trailing hemisphere. The eastern boundary of Cassini Regio is marked by a feature of three overlapping craters outlined in dark material that look a little like a snowman. The image has been enlarged by a factor of two, and the contrast adjusted to reveal more detail within the dark terrain, including two very large impact basins. NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Emily Lakdawalla