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Tiny Moon is No Space Station
based on Space Science Institute report
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=189 align=right border=0 vspace="2" hspace="3"><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR borderColor=#000000 bgColor=#ccccff><TD class=caption vAlign=top>Saturn's moon Mimas (left) compared to the fictional 1977 Star Wars 'Death Star', (right) which used its large depression as a 'superlaser focus lens' to exact planet-scale revenge. Image Credit: NASA/JPL</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Soon after orbital insertion, Cassini returned its best look yet at the heavily cratered moon Mimas (398 kilometers, 247 miles across). The enormous crater at the top of this banner image, named Herschel, is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) wide and 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep. Deeper than the Grand Canyon, Herschel stretches across nearly a third of the tiny moon's diameter. The central mountain shown at the center of Hershel is the height of Mount Everest on Earth.
This impact probably came close to disintegrating the moon. Traces of fracture marks can be seen on the opposite side of Mimas, suggesting that the destruction nearly split the satellite into two pieces. Although the icy moon bears a striking resemblance to the fictional 1977 'Death Star' from the Star Wars film by George Lucas, this low-density satellite probably had a more likely past not as a weapon or space station, but instead as a victim of one catastrophic day in its ancient history. That day Mimas came closer to dying rather than committing any planet-scale homicide.
Tiny Moon is No Space Station
based on Space Science Institute report
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=189 align=right border=0 vspace="2" hspace="3"><TBODY><TR><TD>
Soon after orbital insertion, Cassini returned its best look yet at the heavily cratered moon Mimas (398 kilometers, 247 miles across). The enormous crater at the top of this banner image, named Herschel, is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) wide and 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep. Deeper than the Grand Canyon, Herschel stretches across nearly a third of the tiny moon's diameter. The central mountain shown at the center of Hershel is the height of Mount Everest on Earth.
This impact probably came close to disintegrating the moon. Traces of fracture marks can be seen on the opposite side of Mimas, suggesting that the destruction nearly split the satellite into two pieces. Although the icy moon bears a striking resemblance to the fictional 1977 'Death Star' from the Star Wars film by George Lucas, this low-density satellite probably had a more likely past not as a weapon or space station, but instead as a victim of one catastrophic day in its ancient history. That day Mimas came closer to dying rather than committing any planet-scale homicide.
