# Cassini meets Phoebe



## Brian G Turner (Jun 15, 2004)

The Cassini spacecraft, which is en route to Saturn, has made a close pass of the planet's mysterious moon Phoebe.   The US-European spacecraft made its closest approach to the moon on Friday at 2156 BST at a distance of 2,078km. 

  Images show a scarred moon pounded by massive impacts that tossed building-sized rocks out on to its surface. 

  The pictures have already revealed exciting clues to Phoebe's history, including alternating layers of bright and dark material around its craters. 

 More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3798485.stm


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## littlemissattitude (Jun 16, 2004)

That is an incredibly cool photo.  I always love it when we get pictures confirming that places other than Earth are actual places and not just pinpoints of light in the sky.  It's even cooler when it's a place like this, which can't even be seen from Earth without a telescope.


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## Brian G Turner (Jun 16, 2004)

I liked that photo too. 

 There were others - showing Phoebe as a moon - the typical rounded picture - but because this one showed a sense of scale and detail, I had to post it up.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Jun 25, 2004)

Here's an interesting detail: Phoebe may be the remnant of an early stage of the Solar System, when planetisimals composed of ice, rock and carbon-containing compounds coalesced to form the outer giant planets. 

More here: http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zc.html


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