Craters on tilted terrain in Iapetus. NASA/JPL/Cassini-Huygens Mission. The image was taken on Sept. 10, 2007, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 3,870 kilometers (2,400 miles) from Iapetus. Image scale is 23 meters (75 feet) per pixel.
Stephen Smith wrote:
The craters are stretched and pulled as if they have been partially melted and then immediately reformed. They have flat bottoms and perpendicular walls, indications that they were cut into Iapetus by electric discharge machining (EDM) and not blasted out of it.
To see Iapetus’ equatorial ridge in context, here there are some additional pictures:
N00091828 was taken on September 10, 2007 and received on Earth September 10, 2007. The camera was pointing toward IAPETUS at approximately 62,331 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and CL2 filters.
Mosaic of Iapetus images taken by the Cassini spacecraft, Dec. 31, 2004. Photomosaic assembled by Matt McIrvin. Similar to NASA mosaic.
