It stands to reason to finish out the year with images of Iapetus. Discovered by Giovanni Cassini in 1671 it is Saturn's third largest moon.These images were taken by the Cassini-Huygens space craft and to my mind represents all that is great about humankind. Discovery, creativity, wonder, love, intelligence, curiosity, generosity.....Let's just hope that the odds in 2008 will be stacked in those favors. But at least, when the going gets rough, I'll always have JPL to go to and marvel at what we can do, as oppose to what we did.
PS: Nevertheless, let's be thankful that Iapetus is a little too far away as I foresee a day when this moon will probably be turned in to the solar system's largest Alpine getaway.