Today I discover, from Slashdot, that Iapetus has a “belt”. Not a ring, mind you, but a belt. It is “a long narrow ridge that lies almost exactly on the equator of Iapetus, bisects its entire dark hemisphere and reaches 20 kilometers high (12 miles).” Oh MAN! Read on to see why else Iapetus is so cool.

If you don’t already know, Iapetus is a moon of Saturn. Saturn is clearly the coolest planet in the solar system, with those crazy, beautiful, utterly unique rings, so Iapetus is already running at an advantage, just by orbiting the Sat-Man. On top of this, Iapetus has this weird, excellent, freaky inky black side. Yeah, a black side, not dark just from temporary lack of light. From the article: “The leading hemisphere is as dark as a freshly-tarred street, and the white, trailing hemisphere resembles freshly-fallen snow.” And, “Opinions differ as to whether this dark material originated from within or outside Iapetus.” Mysterious dark material of unknown origin! You know it’s a mess of alien monoliths, like from the movie 2010. You just know it.

So Iapetus was already the coolest moon of the coolest planet in the solar system. (Yeah, Titan, also a moon of Saturn, is cool because it’s got an atmosphere and oceans made of gasoline, blah blah blah, but does it have mysterious dark material of unknown origin? Titan has no comment.) Now, Iapetus has doubled its coolness with this huge giant BELT! I want you to see this belt, right now. This image and others are in the linked article:



That is so cool it looks MADE UP! But it’s totally REAL and in our own solar system! As the article says, “No other moon in the solar system has such a striking geological feature.” Can’t wait to see what else Cassini-Huygens dishes up over the next couple of years.