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Concept
Hyperion (moon)
Summary
Hyperion haɪˈpɪəriən, also known as Saturn VII, is a moon of Saturn discovered by William Cranch Bond, his son George Phillips Bond and William Lassell in 1848. It is distinguished by its irregular shape, its chaotic rotation, and its unexplained sponge-like appearance. It was the first non-round moon to be discovered.
The moon is named after Hyperion, the Titan god of watchfulness and observation – the elder brother of Cronus, the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Saturn. It is also designated Saturn VII. The adjectival form of the name is Hyperionian.
Hyperion's discovery came shortly after John Herschel had suggested names for the seven previously known satellites of Saturn in his 1847 publication Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope. William Lassell, who saw Hyperion two days after William Bond, had already endorsed Herschel's naming scheme and suggested the name Hyperion in accordance with it. He also beat Bond to publication.
Hyperion is one of the largest bodies known to be highly irregularly shaped (non-ellipsoidal, i.e. not in hydrostatic equilibrium) in the Solar System. The only larger moon known to be irregular in shape is Neptune's moon Proteus. Hyperion has about 15% of the mass of Mimas, the least massive known ellipsoidal body. The largest crater on Hyperion is approximately in diameter and deep. A possible explanation for the irregular shape is that Hyperion is a fragment of a larger body that was broken up by a large impact in the distant past. A proto-Hyperion could have been in diameter (which ranges from a little below the size of Mimas to a little below the size of Tethys). Over about 1,000 years, ejecta from a presumed Hyperion breakup would have impacted Titan at low speeds, building up volatiles in the atmosphere of Titan.
Like most of Saturn's moons, Hyperion's low density indicates that it is composed largely of water ice with only a small amount of rock. It is thought that Hyperion may be similar to a loosely accreted pile of rubble in its physical composition.
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