Altogether now...
"That's no Moon. It's a Sponge." </Alec Guinness Voice>
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is expected to complete its final close encounter with Hyperion, one of Saturn's many moons, on Sunday. The probe will pass Hyperion at a distance of around 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometres) tomorrow, the US space agency said. However, images from the fly-by won't be beamed back to Earth until Monday …
I used to make these natty wasp traps out of unwashed jam jars, fill half full with water and punch some wasp-sized holes in the lid. They get in but can't get out.
Until a five-year old asked me why I did it and what had the wasps done to me.
Good point. I don't make them any more.
We get one in the loft every other year or so, the fuckers enter through a crack just above my bedroom window, and said windows, which are the originals, provide them with a steady supply of building material (they've destroyed the bottom of the middle frame.
Just over 4 years ago, my folks decided to extend the kitchen, knock down the old 'garage' (we called it a garage, though it wasn't the car-housing kind, more of a shed really), and create a proper utility room, plus replacing the garage with what they now call The Potting Shed). I have a very extreme reaction to wasp stings - not life-threateningly extreme, but when I'm stung the affected area takes WEEKS to return to normal.
Asked Dad to get Simon (their builder) to get one of his guys to fill in the crack. He wouldn't because "I can't see anything". Couple of years later, they pissed off to South Africa for a month, and I awoke one morning to a swarm on the landing. Thankfully, the time of year meant they were dying off, but I still had to call one of his golf mates (a Rentokil contractor) to deal with 'em.
A nest SANS wasps is, I'm sure you'll agree, a thing of immense beauty.
He's STILL not dealt with the crack, and I've heard buzzing up there…
"Hyperion ... rotates chaotically, essentially tumbling unpredictably through space as it orbits Saturn."
"... most of Cassini's previous close approaches have encountered more or less the same familiar side of the craggy moon.
That seems suspicious. It's as if it's trying to hide something on the 'other' side.
If it has a chotic orbit, is there any explanation for why it hasn't drifted off into interplanetary space or dropped onto Saturn expect the evident postselection explanations ("it just managed to stay in the neighborhood with no reason, otherwise we would not be talking about it"
If the photos don't feature domed cities and Person cars this can only be cast-iron proof that Hyperians [*] exist. And if the photos do have B.E.M.s galore then that's certain proof that NASA are covering up something yet more amazing. And so proceed ad infinitum...
[*] the cool ones who were into Earth probes before Cassini was launched are of course Hypsters
Hyperion looks suspiciously like a missile range, the Saturnians must have been shooting stuff at it for centuries to get it to look like that. It looks as though one of the blasts which appears to have blown the whole side out that is facing the camera would have been a planet buster, or enough to wreck a continent and start a nuclear winter.
Perhaps we should be nice to them?
if Hyperion shows the same side on this 'last' pass some rethought might be a good idea.
instead of a Cassini direct fall into Saturn for burn up at end of mission, maybe the final trajectory should be into Saturn via the center of Hyperion . . . time it so most of the large Earth based and orbiting telescopes have a good view of the projected impact . . . if Hyperion dodges...