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Joined: Oct 2004
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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070128.html

Not least, because it seems to show an expansion of Gas or Liquid from within, which expanded and moulded the surface on its way out? Creating an object with a very low density


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"You will never find a real Human being - Even in a mirror." ....Mike Kremer.


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Hi Mike,

Great photo! I wish I knew more about what I am looking at. The picture suggests a subsidence, an ancient one at that. There are craters on top of what look like slides. I would be curious to see the same feature from a different angle and in several wave-bands.

Dr. R.

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I can't help but to think I am looking at what could have been a comet.

A low density slushball that vented steam and dust before being captured.


DA Morgan
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Hi DA,

That's not such a bad idea. I have always visualized/assumed that when comets run out of volatiles that only ashes are left. It could be that a large cohesive object is what remains.

Another assumption that I, and I am sure others as well, make is that all cometary bodies are in long period solar orbits. I realize that a comet is almost by definition in a solar orbit, but maybe we could have rocky bodies with embedded volatiles. For example a planetary moon. These could outgas over the ages to form bodies such as Hyperion.

What would you call something of this nature? A cometary moon?



Dr. R.


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Yes, it is very difficult to say with any certainty, just how this spongy object came about.
My best thoughts are, since the 'tubular craters' are conical, with their surface exits being the larger diameters.
It seems to show that the 'moonlet' was in a plastic state, (hot?) to allow these conical craters to solidify and become fixed, as the outgasses were expanding.
Prehaps it was blown out of some alien Volcanoe?

I think the smooth conical slides which show for 3/4 of the way around the picture center.....are the fractures which blew a great lump of the surface away....allowing us to look deeper inside.
The true suface, as seen further out from the smooth fractures is covered in small craters. Not caused by outside bombardement,
being too deep and dust free.

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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hi Mike,

Tubular craters? Until you pointed out I hadn't thought about it. That is pretty odd.

As for the "plastic state" you mention, something comes to mind. As I recall when the volcanoes were spotted on Io it was attributed to gravitational flexing or a sort of tidal motion. Could something similar be happening here?

I can't really tell from the picture if the feature you mention is a blow out or a subsidence. Hmmm ... ?

Here are some more pictures from the imaging team:

http://ciclops.org/search.php?search=Hyperion

I going to look at these closer.

Dr. R.



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Hi Dr.R.

Seems like those extra pictures you found from the Imaging Team
have changed my thinking, slightly.
As you said in your first post 'what are we looking at?'
A very relevant statement of yours.

Could it really be an ice ball? Or a lump of pumice stone?
Its the conical blowholes that intrigue me.
Not enough info, so I'll make no more comments


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I suspect a mixture of both. We often referred to comets as dirty snowballs.

What might we expect Hyperion to look like if, at some point in the past, it had been heated up by passing close to the sun like a comet or was heated by tidal forces?

Consider this object for example.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/highres/1097899fig2.jpg

What might it look like with equal resolution?

But then again ... why not something more exotic and more exciting. Sure would like to be there walking on it.


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Hi Guys,

Mike is right - the conical blow holes (or whatever they are) are just plain weird! I would like to get an opinion from a geophysicist.

DA's picture of Wild-2 is a bit different than the Hyperion picture. Hyperion looks inactive. The wild-2 photo is effected by the emission of jets of dust and gas.

Dr. R.

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Of course it is. But I expect that, with better resolutoin, those jets are emanating from holes that look remarkably similar.

Consider the erosive affect that steam with dust would have on a hole ... not sure it would look a lot different.


DA Morgan

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