Is Saturn's moon, Hyperion, a "captured comet-core" ?

[athiestforthebirthofjesus]

here's a picture:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

it *looks* like a captured snowball, which some people think a comet more or less is, composition-wise .... and the thin, dark layer could be just the deposit over millenia, of solar wind.

just a wild guess, but this picture sure looks like it supports the guess.(thinking back to the time when spacecraft approached the comet several years ago .. low density, chaotic rotation, etc ....

thoughts?

 

[slartibartfast]

That is indeed an amazing false color image. Cassini has done great work on detail. But, in true color:

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/STKPOD/stk201547s~True-Color-Mosaic-of-Saturn-s-Impact-Pummeled-Moon-Hyperion-Posters.jpg

It looks more like a spongy potato.

It's also likely that Hyperion has been in orbit around Saturn for quite some time, as it has developed a 4:3 orbital resonance with Titan.

You *could* be onto something, but I somehow doubt it. Hyperion is the largest irregular shaped body in our solar system, which suggests, if at some point in time it were a comet, it would have been one of the most massive ones documented.


Comets are like the breadcuimbs between the couch cushions. Hyperion is like the slice of bread.

Example:

Mass of Hyperion (roughly) 0.6 x 10^19kg
Mass of comet Halley: (highest estimates) 3.0 x 10^14

Not even close.


But Hyperion is indeed an eerily mystifying critter. So if you have more questions on the subject, definitely be sure to ask. It is not a well understood celestial object, and perhaps more questions about it can unlock some greater details about the "when, where, why" and "how" of this object.