Shades of Grey: Iapetus' Secrets Aren't Just Black and WhiteUntil the Cassini mission flies to the Saturnian satellite Iapetus, we are limited to ground-based data and Voyager I and II flyby data to puzzle together the secrets of this moon that displays extreme albedo contrasts. Iapetus' leading side is carbon black with an albedo of 0.081; its trailing side is brilliant ice with an albedo of 0.41. Very few moderate-resolution visible/near IR spectra of Iapetus exist. New spectra of both the leading and trailing sides covering a wavelength range of 0.575 - 1.03 micron were taken in 2000. The new leading side spectra fail to match spectra of either Vilas et al. or Bell et al. in both inflections and slope (where slope is defined here as change in reflectance with changing wavelength). The new spectra do, however, appear to match Buratti et al.'s spectrum of the leading side.
Document ID
20030111329
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Jarvis, K. S. (Lockheed Martin Corp. Houston, TX, United States)
Barker, E. S. (Texas Univ. Austin, TX, United States)
Vilas, F. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Owen, T. (Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)