The moons of Saturn are a strange assortment of worlds. When the Cassini spacecraft takes the highest resolution images ever of each new world, it generally captures something that leaves scientists and space buffs scratching their heads.

Enter the next head-scratcher: Hyperion. This tiny water ice moon looks like a sponge and may in fact be porous, with up to 40 percent of its interior composed of empty space. Too small to gravitationally sculpt itself into a sphere, Hyperion has been further misshapen by impacts. The small amount of dark material visible in images may be debris from much smaller impacts.

The image above is one of a series taken by Cassini between June 09 and June 11, 2005 and put together into a short movie. Cassini will target Hyperion for a close flyby on September 26, 2005.

More Information

• Cassini-Huygens
• Planetary Photojournal
  • catalog page for “PIA06243: Encountering Hyperion (Movie)“
  • Quick Time Movie for “PIA06243: Cassini’s First Close Brush with Hyperion (Animation)“