Japetus' Spots (HR - possible natural colors; elab. Lunexit)

At high resolution, terrain in the Transition Region between bright and dark Hemispheres on Saturn's moon Japetus reveals a spotty appearance reminiscent of a Dalmatian. The bright material on the frozen surface of Iapetus is water ice, and the dark material is likely carbonaceous in composition.
The dark material is preferentially found at the bottoms of craters. Bright water ice forms the "bed rock" on Japetus, while the dark, presumably loose material apparently lies on top of the ice (the terrain seen here is also visible in PIA08383, but it is viewed here at higher resolution).
The mosaic consists of 2 image footprints across the surface of Japetus. The view is centered on terrain near 42° South Latitude and 209,3° West Longitude, on the anti-Saturn facing Hemisphere. Image scale is approx. 32 meters (105 feet) per pixel.
The clear spectral filter images in this mosaic were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 10, 2007, at distances ranging from 5.363 to 5.884 Km from Japetus.