Space Going Wasp?!!!

This ultra hi resolution photo comes from the Cassini spacecraft, working hard out at Saturn.  This example is of Saturn's plane Hyperion which we can all agree that this is a wonderful photo but damn if this ultra crisp photo does not appear to be a space going wasp nest! 

This stunning view of Hyperion was obtained during Cassini's close flyby on Sept. 26, 2005.  The image were taken as Cassini passed about 310 miles above the moon's surface. Hyperion itself 165 miles in diameter.   The moon has a decided red coloration which was toned down so other false colors could be added to the photo to highlight the highly unusual landscape and the massive impact event.


You can read more at SPLOID blog   and more info from the Spaceflightnow blog

Cassini flyby of Saturn's Moon Hyperion

Recently, the Cassini orbiter did a specacular flyby of Saturn's moon Hyperion. Now this is a weird moon. Watch the chaotic rotation the moon experiences during the film. Check out the surface topology! Something odd was going on when this potato shaped moon was formed.


IO9 article

Hyperion the movie one step closer to reality

There are a few stories that I can not imagine how they could ever committed to film. Dan Simmons Hyperion series has got to be the top of just about everyone's list. Hyperion is like a backwards running HG Wells Time Machine, mixed in with Farmer's Riverworld, a healthy sprinkling of Kings Gunslinger and throw in a big dollop of Martin's Dying of the Light, mix thoroughly and commit to celluloid. A complex mix of characters with two major time lines running in opposite directions...now if that doesn't sound like an impossible task.

But according to IO9 and Variety:

• Hyperion has found its director: Scott Derrickson, the man who helped Keanu Reeves make the Earth Stand Still in last year's remake.
• Derrickson will direct Hyperion Cantos, which combines the first two novels in the Hyperion series. The script will be written by Trevor Sands, who also recently completed work on the proposed movie version of The Six Million Dollar Man.
  

A screen version of The Six Million Dollar Man?! Based on the book, one would hope, and not the terrible tv treatment...shudder.

But anyway, Hyperion is a grand scale right up there with Dune and we all know how successful the industry has been at providing a screenplay that everyone is comfortable with.

<- Variety via IO9 ->

Hydrocarbons, Necessary For Life, Found On Saturn's Moon Hyperion

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed for the first time surface details of Saturn's moon Hyperion, including cup-like craters filled with hydrocarbons that may indicate more widespread presence in our solar system of basic chemicals necessary for life. Hyperion yielded some of its secrets to the battery of instruments aboard Cassini as the spacecraft flew close by in September 2005. Water and carbon dioxide ices were found, as well as dark material that fits the spectral profile of hydrocarbons.