| Iapetus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Diameter | 1,436 km 892 mi. |
| Distance from primary | 3,561,300 km 2,212,889 mi. |
Iapetus is the seventeenth moon of Saturn. The astronomer Cassini first viewed Iapetus with a telescope. The satellite was observed to "disappear" every 40 days, half of its 79-day orbit. Cassini noticed that the "winking" moon's entire hemisphere was vastly brighter than the other side and the moon was synchronously rotating.[1]