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Posted by baalke on July 5, 2007, 10:49 am
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-071
NASA Finds Hydrocarbons on Saturn's Moon Hyperion
July 04, 2007
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed for the
first time
surface details of Saturn's moon Hyperion, including cup-like craters
filled
with hydrocarbons that may indicate more widespread presence in our
solar system
of basic chemicals necessary for life.
Hyperion yielded some of its secrets to the battery of instruments
aboard C
assini as the spacecraft flew close by in September 2005. Water and
carbon dioxide
ices were found, as well as dark material that fits the spectral
profile of
hydrocarbons.
A paper appearing in 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.
"Of special interest is the presence on Hyperion of hydrocarbons--
combinations of
carbon and hydrogen atoms that are found in comets, meteorites, and
the dust in
our galaxy," said Dale Cruikshank, a planetary scientist at NASA's
Ames Research
Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and the paper's lead author. "These
molecules, when
embedded in ice and exposed to ultraviolet light, form new molecules
of biological
significance. This doesn't mean that we have found life, but it is a
further
indication that the basic chemistry needed for life is widespread in
the universe."
Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph and visual and infrared
mapping
spectrometer captured compositional variations in Hyperion's surface.
These
instruments, capable of mapping mineral and chemical features of the
moon, sent
back 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.
"Most of Hyperion's surface ice is a mix of frozen water and organic
dust, but
carbon dioxide ice is also prominent. The carbon dioxide is not pure,
but is
somehow chemically attached to other molecules," explained
Cruikshank.
Prior spacecraft data from other moons of Saturn, as well as Jupiter's
moons
Ganymede and Callisto, suggest that the carbon dioxide molecule is
"complexed,"
or attached with other surface material in multiple ways. "We think
that ordinary
carbon dioxide will evaporate from Saturn's moons over long periods of
time,"
said Cruikshank, "but it appears to be much more stable when it is
attached to
other molecules."
"The Hyperion flyby was a fine example of Cassini's multi-wavelength
capabilities.
In this first-ever ultraviolet observation of Hyperion, the detection
of water ice
tells us about compositional differences of this bizarre body," said
Amanda
Hendrix, Cassini scientist on the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph at
NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Hyperion, Saturn's eighth largest moon, has a chaotic spin and orbits
Saturn every
21 days. The July 5 issue of Nature also includes new findings from
the imaging
team about Hyperion's strange, spongy-looking appearance. Details are
online at:
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=3303 .
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space
Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California
Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for
NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington.
More information on the Cassini mission is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media contacts: Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Ruth Dasso Marlaire 650-604-4709
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
2007-071
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