The second Saturnian moon ever discovered -- Iapetus -- was immediately caught doing something no other moon had ever done: it was only visible for half of its orbit. The other 50% of the time ...

From Iapetus, Saturn appears the same size as Earth as seen from our Moon. Unfortunately, Iapetus’ odd huge orbit makes it hard for the Cassini spacecraft to reach it.

Two scientists propose an explanation for the bizarre ridge belting Saturn's moon Iapetus at the equator. At one time Iapetus itself may have had a satellite, created by a giant impact with ...

Astronomers believe it is possible for a moon to have its own moon — or even rings. Saturn’s walnut-shaped moon Iapetus may be evidence of exactly such an occurrence.

Iapetus: Moon of mystery ... Something must have hit the moon - most likely another moon - and ejected it into its present orbit. "However, that is an unlikely event," says Freire.

For centuries, people wondered how the leopard got its spots. The consensus is pretty solid that evolution played a major role. But it’s only been five years since the arrival of high-resolut… ...

Saturn's moon Iapetus has virtually no gray. Rather, its features are all stark black and white. The appearance has long puzzled astronomers.

On October 25, 1671, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, an Italian astronomer, mathematician, astrologer and engineer, discovered Iapetus (pronounced eye-app-eh-tuss), one of Saturn’s many moons. He ...

There’s Iapetus, half of which is dusty and dark, and the other shiny and bright. ... until the moon was kicked out of its orbit. “It was a huge surprise,” Downey said.

When Cassini first saw Iapetus, the moon looked like a tiny speck on the west side of Saturn. He calculated its orbit and thought he would be able to see it again on the east side of Saturn 39 ...

Assuming it was similar in size to Iapetus (one of Saturn's larger moons), this orbit would be stable until the change in Titan's orbit brought the two moons into their own gravitational resonance.