Iapetus with known topography scaled one in ten million

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tato_713

@tato

The biggest not rounded moon of Saturn, with two contrasting different colours.

250

updated March 5, 2021

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Originally published here: Iapetus with known topography scaled one in ten million by tato_713 - Thingiverse

This model is made by myself using MATLAB R2016a on the topography map from the blog of Dr. Paul Schenk. The original map has the known topography only, the rest was interpolated. It's scaled to 1 in 107 or one in ten million. This is a 15cm model. On this scale the Moon is a basketball, and Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos are 2 and 1 mm respectively.
The file's names explained:name_1_x_10_y.stl is 1 : x* 10y. So _1_6_10_7 is 1:600000000 or one in 60 million.

S8 Iapetus

Iapetus is the third biggest moon of Saturn in size and mass. Although the similar size to Rhea, Iapetus is considered not being in hydrostatic equilibrium, unlike Rhea. This is because the high variability of the terrain, including large craters, basins and the large equatorial ridge. Another well known unusual feature is the dramatic change of coloration, like chocolate and cream. When Giovanni Cassini discover Iapetus, he could not find it at the east side of Saturn. He correctly deduced that one side of Iapetus was brighter than the other, and it is tidal locked with Saturn.