Hyperion

(hÿ-peer -ee-ŏn) A satellite of Saturn, discovered in 1848. Images taken by Voyager 2 in 1981 showed an elongated irregular body with a ‘chaotic’ spin orientation and rate; this tumbling is due to its irregular shape, its eccentric orbit, and the gravitational effects upon it of Saturn and Titan. Hyperion has a low albedo (0.03) compared with the other icy inner satellites of Saturn, although it is also probably composed largely of ice. The Voyager 2 pictures showed craters with diameters up to 120 km and one long ridge or scarp extending for 300 km; this is named Bond–Lassell in honor of the discoverers of Hyperion, William Cranch Bond, George Philips Bond, and William Lasell. The Cassini–Huygens probe flew by Hyperion in Sept. 2005 at a distance of 500 km. The images it returned reveal a heavily cratered world with a reddish tinge. In the Cassini images Hyperion shows evidence of possible multiple landslides in the past. A vast impact crater 200 km across is surrounded by rays. A mysterious dark material fills many of the craters, See Table 2, backmatter.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

Hyperion

[hī′pir·ē·ən]

(astronomy)

A satellite of Saturn approximately 300 miles (480 kilometers) in diameter.

Hyperion

one of the Titans; known for his beauty. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 132]

Hyperion

Titan and father of the sun. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmer-man, 132]

Hyperion

(computer)

An MS-DOS personal computer that was manufactured in Kanata (near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) in the mid-1980s. It received considerable government subsidies and, while it was considered well-designed and manufactured and a real threat to the Compaq Portable, the Ottawa firm that designed it was unable to beat Compaq.

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