back to article It's not over 'til Saturn's spongy moon sings: Cassini probe set for final Hyperion fly-by

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 …

  1. Little Mouse
    WTF?

    Altogether now...

    "That's no Moon. It's a Sponge." </Alec Guinness Voice>

    1. Detective Emil
      Alert

      Re: Altogether now...

      Looks like a wasps' nest to me.

      Note: I can thoroughly recommend a life in which one does not learn what a wasps' nest looks like.

      1. Mark 85
        Flame

        Re: Altogether now...

        Now that you mention, it does look familiar. I wonder is someone is playing games and actually took a picture of what's hanging on my neighbor's house under the roof overhang?

        Icon.... the only way to fight wasps. Just don't burn down the house in the process.

        1. Mystic Megabyte

          Re: Altogether now... wasp tip #2

          After a friend got stung he filled a wet/dry vacuum cleaner with boiling water and sucked all the wasps to their doom.

          1. ravenviz Silver badge

            Re: Altogether now... wasp tip #2

            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.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Altogether now...

        A wasps' nest is a thing of beauty, I've seen several up close.

        To misuse a phrase: No such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

      3. Paul Crawford Silver badge

        Wasp's nest?

        Sure its not the Wirrn?

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ark_in_Space

      4. Sarah Balfour

        Re: Altogether now...

        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…

        1. DocJames

          Re: Altogether now...

          I presume you load up on antihistamines ASAP after a sting, and if you hear buzzing and go to investigate, pre-emptively.

    2. K

      Re: Altogether now...

      Bizarre.. Looked like tooth decay to me. Perhaps they've discovered a new Rorschach Test.

  2. frank ly

    hmmm

    "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.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: hmmm

      Until it drops its cloak and takes off for Vega, all the sides are equally well potemkin'ed.

    2. iLuddite
      Alien

      Re: hmmm

      Perhaps it is inside, like a 'jumping bean', trying to hatch.

  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Chaotic weewil!

    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"

    1. Christoph

      Re: Chaotic weewil!

      It rotates chaotically (i.e. spins - its day). That doesn't mean that it orbits Saturn chaotically.

      1. Bob Armstrong

        Re: Chaotic weewil!

        How can something "rotate chaotically" ?

  4. Your alien overlord - fear me
    Alien

    Photos on Sunday, released on Monday - after they've removed all the alien outposts/pyramids/faces off the images no doubt.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Very shrewd!

      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

  5. Chris G

    Big Target

    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?

  6. x 7

    looks like a giant worm lair.........rock snakes anyone?

  7. willi0000000

    also hmmm

    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...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd call it The Crumpet Moon myself....

  9. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Does not seem big enough to accommodate a Shrike

    That looks to desolate and small to accommodate a Shrike. But you never know.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It a stone beehive

    See "mote in god's eye"

    Http://www.epubsbook.com/books/2134_54.html

    1. Chris G

      Re: It a stone beehive

      Thanks AC, the last time I read that was in the '80s. Duly bookmarked!

  11. Mark Eaton-Park

    So an off centre lump of iron in pumus

    Is the magnetosphere being disturbed by volcanos then? Given rotating ionic fluid is on the outside of planet rather than in the core like ours.

  12. Martin Budden Silver badge

    My first thought when I saw the picture was that it looks like a huge pumice stone in spaaaace.

  13. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alert

    Seed pod?

    Space monsters

    S P A C E - M O N S T E R S !!!!

  14. Crisp
    Go

    Those pourus craters?

    Possibly home to giant space worms? We need to do more science!

  15. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    Looks like a bit of Oasis foam for flower arrangements ... maybe it's for their equivalent of the Chelsea Flower Show?

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