Iapetus update

The data have returned from Cassini’s closest-ever flyby of Iapetus (see 09/07/2007).  All the images can be found at Cassini Multimedia raw images, with good samples posted by the imaging team here and here.
    Amateurs and pros at Unmanned Spaceflight started getting really excited at 12:40 a.m. Tuesday when the images hit the web, and were nearly beside themselves with astonishment as more images from the bright side came down Wednesday evening.  The clarity and detail visible in the photos is stunning.
    It now appears that the equatorial ridge feature does indeed circle the entire moon, at least faintly (see globe) and has been severely battered by craters.  The crisp boundaries between dark and light material raise new questions about this unique yin-yang moon, because the white surface appears pristine by comparison, right next to the dark material.  Some of the white areas appear young and craterless, suggesting some form of reprocessing of the material after emplacement.  The other instruments have contributed their data toward the goal of understanding the composition, depth and distribution of the dark and light materials, but interpreting the rich data set will take years.

These are very interesting results indeed.  Come back later for comments after the scientists publish their initial analysis.  Incidentally, did you know that the name Iapetus appears to be a Greek derivative of the name Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah?  Some scholars believe that Greek mythology has some roots in Old Testament accounts.  The story that Iapetus was one of the Titans who inherited a third of the Earth could be a corruption of the story of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah who repopulated the world after the Flood.  The Parthenon Code is one site that investigates such connections between the Bible and later Greek mythology.