Hyperion’s hydrocarbons
By Ron Cowen
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of frozen water on the surface of Saturn’s moon Hyperion and have also discovered solid carbon dioxide there. The evidence comes from spectra taken by the Cassini spacecraft during the first flyby of the moon, in September 2005. The craft’s observations of Hyperion’s craggy surface also reveal dark material that appears to be other hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons have been found on Titan and a few other Saturnian moons as well as on several of Jupiter’s icy moons. When ultraviolet light strikes these carbon-based, ice-embedded molecules, they produce more-complex compounds that might provide the ingredients of life, notes Dale Cruikshank of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. He and his colleagues describe the findings in the July 5 Nature.