Although, the object in the picture above looks like a sponge floating in space, it is actually Hyperion: a Saturnian moon. This is probably one of the weirdest looking moons in our solar system. On September 26,2005 the mystery of the space sponge was solved when Cassini’s spacecraft did a close flyby.
Reports say that the moon’s odd appearance is due to the highly porous surface of the moon. This is probably one of the non-spherical bodies in space. Most of the objects in space are spherical or round in shape. But, this one is unique. It is composed of ‘water ice’. I think the presence of water ice is interesting. That might just answer our quest for water in space.
The water ice is not really ‘fresh’. It’s dingy. The reddish gunk as reported is a composite of carbon and hydrogen gases.
A closer look at the sponge like object tells us that the ‘moon’ is filled with craters all over. This particular moon belonging to Saturn has more craters than earth’s moon. The craters are about 1 to 6 miles( 2 to 10 kms) wide. Also, the latest discovery by the spacecraft tells us: about 40% of the moon is empty space. How weird?
Peter Thomas of cornell University led one of the studies on this moon. He recently said:
Theoretical work suggests that if you have a porous target, craters may be more compressional instead of being explosive and tossing stuff out.
Scientists have a particular theory in mind regarding the origin of this space sponge: Hyerion might have encountered the saturn’s dust storm. Thus, resulting in the multitude of craters all over. It sounds like the third largest moon of Saturn : Iapetus and Hyperion share the same origin.
Image Credits: Didierbeck and Wanderingspace
