Iapetus - Black on white or white on black? |
Iapetus - Black on white or white on black? |
Sep 14 2007, 07:40 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
Seems to be a lot of dispute on this subject... I think it's ice from the interior, but what does everyone else think?
Edit: This world seems very complex so the question could perhaps be phrased as 'which of these options is most responsible for the Iapetan dichotomy?' |
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Sep 16 2007, 10:41 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3008 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
You're right, Ed, this is all very mysterious. The answer may be billions of 5cm-tall Monoliths, or something odder.
Seriously: one thing I've noticed from the closest images. We've seen a few small, recent craters with white ejecta rays in the dark regions. But I haven't seen the opposite: dark, fresh craters on the light-toned regions. This leads me to suspect that the black is a thin dusting over the white, whereas the white is a thicker layer. I'm looking closely at the white-black-white contacts in the hi-res images for puzzle-pieces... --Bill -------------------- |
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