Candy-Colored Cup-Shaped Craters of Carbon Dioxide Ice

Subhaanallah. The space has so much for us to explore. These nice picture are taken from the Space.com website. Allah through the Quran, has asked us to look out for His signs. Only through His creations, we get to know how tiny and independant we are and how almighty He is.

By adding the 7 layers of atmospheres protecting the earth, we are filtered from all the harmful rays. (Note: The other planet has no atmosphere like the earth, the planet are taking in the direct sun rays.) He set the sun and moon and planets in their own course (orbit) so they will not collide with one another.

So colourful... so beautiful out there, waiting for us to explore. By visiting the website, I am learning more things about our Creator.

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Quote from: SPACE.com [Images of the day]
Candy-Colored Cup-Shaped Craters of Carbon Dioxide Ice

For the first time, NASA's Cassini spacecraft revealed surface details of Saturn's moon Hyperion. During a flyby in September 2005, it saw cup-like craters filled with hydrocarbons. These substances may indicate a more widespread presence of basic chemicals necessary for life in our solar system.

Water and carbon dioxide ices were found, as well as dark material that fits the spectral profile of hydrocarbons.

Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer captured compositional variations in Hyperion's surface. These instruments, which map mineral and chemical features of the moon, returned data confirming the presence of frozen water found by earlier ground-based observations, but also discovered solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) mixed in unexpected ways with the ordinary ice. Images of the brightest regions of Hyperion's surface show frozen water that is crystalline in form, like that found on Earth.

In this map, blue shows the maximum exposure of frozen water, red denotes carbon dioxide ice ("dry ice"), magenta indicates regions of water plus carbon dioxide, yellow is a mix of carbon dioxide and an unidentified material.

The July 5 issue of Nature reports details of Hyperion's surface craters and composition observed during this flyby, including keys to understanding the moon's origin and evolution over 4.5 billion years. This is the first time scientists were able to map the surface material on Hyperion.

Hyperion, Saturn's eighth largest moon, has a chaotic spin and orbits Saturn every 21 days.

--NASA and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Ames