Explanation: Whatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it. What remains is one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest moons. The crater, named Herschel after the 1789 discoverer of Mimas, Sir William Herschel, spans about 130 kilometers and is pictured above in the dramatic light of its terminator. Mimas' low mass produces a surface gravity just strong enough to create a spherical body but weak enough to allow such relatively large surface features. Mimas is made of mostly water ice with a smattering of rock - so it is accurately described as a big dirty snowball. The above image was taken during the 2005 January flyby of the robot spacecraft Cassini now in orbit around Saturn.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Saturn - Mimas - crater - Saturn - krater Publikacii so slovami: Saturn - Mimas - crater - Saturn - krater
Sm. takzhe: Polyarnoe siyanie vokrug severnogo polyusa Saturna Saturn noch'yu Yuzhnyi lunnyi peizazh Luna zatmevaet Saturn Saturn u kraya Luny Cveta Saturna ot "Kassini" Vremena goda na Saturne Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>