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TheHockeyist · 08-05-2019, 02:16 PM

Ten episodes. Hard to believe I’m still doing this.

We enter into orbit around Saturn again and head to a very distant satellite - Iapetus (pronounced “eye-APP-eh-tuss”). Iapetus is so far away from Saturn that it takes 80 days to orbit Saturn once. Its orbit is also tilted relative to the other moons, heading above and below Saturn’s equator. If you want good views of the rings, look no further than Iapetus.

As we approach the third-largest moon of Saturn, we quickly notice something… wrong with this moon. It’s like.. it doesn’t exist. We’re confused for a moment, and then as the moon recedes, it becomes blindingly bright, a moon covered in ice. How did we miss it?

Turns out that Iapetus is pretty much a giant yin-yang symbol. One side is very dark and the other side is very bright. The dark side faces forwards (in the direction of Iapetus’s motion as it orbits Saturn), and the bright side faces backwards. There’s a huge contrast between the two Why? We’re not sure. Some have suggested that Iapetus plowed through some sort of dark material early in its history, coating the front of it with this dark thing. It’s a thin layer, easily broken by impact craters to reveal the fresh white ice underneath in places.

And there’s also a giant equatorial ridge running across the moon (especially the dark side) rendering Iapetus kind of like a walnut in its shape. Why this ridge exists is another unsolved mystery of Iapetus.

One this is sure. With water ice on Iapetus, we can play hockey.

Iapetus is playing against themselves. We have a team from the dark side and a team from the bright side. They’re huge rivals - a tradition that dates back millennia.

Go!

The bright side takes the puck, through the defense. The dark side hopes they won’t be seen. The bright side hopes that they will blind the dark side. And crazed fans have already begun tearing up the stadium. Literally!

Wait, what's this? A giant dark boulder from the dark side? Don’t throw that onto the-

CRACK

Spoke too soon. The rink is now unsafe for hockey.

Apparently this is normal on Iapetus.

Final score: 0-0, the winner is Iapetus, of course. Iapetus has won every game here since hockey first came to Iapetus.

Next episode… well, I’ll let you decide. Where in the solar system do you want to go next?

*puolivalmiste* · 08-05-2019, 02:32 PM

I think there might be some ice in craters at mercurys poles that are yet to see some quality hockey

**OrbitingDeath** · 08-05-2019, 04:48 PM

Arrakis !

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