When last we left our hero Cassini, in February 2008, he was already four years into his new career as a pinball, bouncing to and fro among Saturn’s rings.

Two months later NASA gave him permission to keep right on bouncing, at least until mid-2010, wearing a fresh T-shirt bearing the words “Cassini Equinox”.

This is all by way of justifying the use of yet another photo of Iapetus, that nut of a Saturn moon that did a fashion spread for Cassini in September 2007. This picture is among the astounding collection featured this month on the Boston Globe’s Big Picture website.

Iapetus was too walnutty to believe, as explained with great anticipation in a spring 2007 Dorseyland post, though it’s still not very forthcoming about its funny ridge.

Oddly enough, Cassini was in the process of transmitting its Iapetus snapshots back to Earth when it was hit by a blast of protons from deep space’s slingshot that shut it down like an armadillo being pecked by turkey vultures. The scare was temporary, though, and Cassini’s camera has had no rest since.