[X] My Assistant

[RPascal]

The images of Hyperion are fascinating, and its appearance with the many dark crater bottoms and the very steep crater walls seems to be unique, never seen on any other Solar System body before (?). For this reason I wanted to start a special topic solely about Hyperion and the origin of its appearance here.
(By the way: phantastic mosaics and color images, Jason!)

In most discussions here I have read the idea, that the dark crater bottoms is material that slides down the steep crater walls after the volatile icy component has evaporated or sublimated away. But looking at the many images I could not find a single (small or large) crater in the dark material that would expose bright material beneath. Shouldn't we expect this? If the dark component would indeed be a more or less thin layer deposited on the crater bottoms one should find many small craters were this thin layer was blasted away by the impact.
Because of this, my impression is that the dark stuff is the material from inside Hyperion, exposed by impacts, and the bright material is the crust.

[Gsnorgathon]

And if you liked the book, don't miss the movie!

[nprev]

And if you liked the book, don't miss the movie!

Nice!!!

The thing that strikes me the most about Hyperion is that it's so battered, more so than any other known body, IMHO. Phoebe or any of the main-Belt asteroids don't even come close to this crater density, and if I'm not mistaken Phoebe is the only other object in Hyperion's size range that we've examined closely.

So...I reiterate my hypothesis that Hyperion was captured after one or more passes through the rings followed by a close encounter with Titan that placed it in its current orbit. Alternatively, it may have smashed through a ring that used to be beyond Titan that was eventually swept up by Hyperion after being braked thereby into its present position.