How Do You Clean Uranus?

With a space sponge!*

One of the strangest moons in our solar system is Hyperion, a Saturnian satellite so pockmarked by deep craters that it looks like a giant, rotating bath sponge adrift in space.
New image analyses suggest the moon’s odd appearance is the result of a highly porous surface that preserves craters, allowing them to remain nearly as pristine as the day they were created.
The finding is just one of several new details about the quirky moon revealed in two studies published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. Scientists determined that Hyperion is composed mostly of water ice and that the bottoms of its craters are covered in a dark red gunk that could be the key to resolving some of the moon’s other strange properties.

*not safe for septic systems

2 Responses to “How Do You Clean Uranus?”

1. The_Real_JeffS says:

   July 5, 2007 at 1:22 pm

   Looks like THS worked some Druid magic there….

2. Skul says:

   July 6, 2007 at 10:14 pm

   No, not touchin’ this one.