Compositional Mapping of Hyperion with Cassini VIMS

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Scientific paper

Observations from the Cassini Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) indicate that Hyperion has a heterogeneous surface dominated by water ice but with substantial additional materials. The most prominent morphologic features are irregular to subcircular topographic lows containing low-albedo material. While absorption due to water ice is strongest in the bright surface regions away from these features, some water ice is present in all VIMS spectra. Absorption due to CO2 varies across the surface; while strong in the low-albedo material, the CO2 absorption at 4.25 micrometers varies in intensity throughout the bright icy regions. These variations are not linked to morphologic or topographic variations, though occasional enhancements are seen in the immediate vicinity of small impacts. This heterogeneous distribution of CO2 within the water ice that makes up most of the surface may be due either to exogenic influences (e.g., implantation, radiolysis) or occur as result of endogenic formation and/or emplacement. An absorption band at 2.42 micrometers, seen also on other satellites, is strongest in the low-albedo material and weak or absent elsewhere.
Additional absorption features in the 3- to 5-micrometer spectral range are suggestive of other, possibly organic components. A band at 3.28 micrometers may indicate the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) but, though several channels wide, lies just above the 1-? detection threshold. Other absorption features wider than a single VIMS wavelength channel occur longward of 4 micrometers but have not yet been positively identified. As with carbon dioxide, the strengths of these absorption features do not appear closely correlated with surface morphology or geologic units other than the topographic lows containing the low-albedo material. The heterogeneous distribution of these materials within the ice has implications for the formation and subsequent evolution of Hyperion.

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