This up-close view of Hyperion shows a low-density body blasted by impacts over eons. Scientists believe that the spongy appearance of Hyperion is caused by a phenomenon called thermal erosion, in which dark materials accumulating on crater floors are warmed by sunlight and melt deeper into the surface, allowing surrounding ice to vaporize away. Either that, or Giant Space Bees
A paper in the current issue of Nature examines the results of a Cassini spacecraft flyby of Hyperion in 2005, and notes among other things that there are hydrocarbons in the bottoms of those cell-like craters. Not that there is life of course, but that the basic building blocks are very common.
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