1. It was discovered when the Cassini spacecraft imaged Iapetus on December 31, 2004.

2. Atlas was the son of the Titans Iapetus and Clymene, and his siblings were Epimetheus, Menoetius and Prometheus

3. From Iapetus, Saturn would appear to be 1°56' in diameter (four times the size of the Moon viewed from Earth).

4. The reddish substance contains long chains of carbon and hydrogen and appears very similar to material found on other Saturnian satellites, most notably Iapetus.

5. Atlas, in Greek mythology, son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene (or Asia) and brother of Prometheus (creator of humankind)

6. The original dark material is believed to have come from outside Iapetus, but now it consists principally of lag from the sublimation of ice from the warmer areas of Iapetus's surface.

7. Caledonian orogenic belt, range of mountains situated in northwestern Europe, developed as a result of the opening, closure, and destruction of the Iapetus Ocean in the period from the start of the Cambrian (542 million years ago) to the end of the Silurian (about 416 million years ago).