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Post by Enchant on Sept 16, 2007 8:59:40 GMT -5
When the Cassini spacecraft flew close to saturns's moon Iapetus, it puzzled sciencetist that the black spots on it were a bit more complicated and interesting. It is alot thinner then expected..They are uncertain as to what the dark material is, but suspect it could be left over from volcanic activity and that it could be the cause of the moon's unique equatorial ridge. It is also interesting he concentration of dark material into pits after sunlight warmed the dark areas up and evaporated the underlying ice. What is this mysterious black material? Do you have any thoughts? I am not sure I read the article correctly...are they saying that the black material moves away from the sunlight? If so would that make it some form or intellligent life? If not and it is what it is..then curious indeed...how did the black material get there? [Source: newsientist.com] Interestingly enough, as Cassini was sending data back to Earth, it was hit by a cosmic ray that caused a power switch to trip. The spacecraft was not damaged, but had to turn off its instruments and relay only limited information. But mission controllers claimthat all data was recovered although there was a 12 hour delay...[source: iht.com]
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