Everyone likes Mimas. No, not the Greek Titan whose legs were serpents, yet Mimas the moon of Saturn– which was named after that mythical personality. Mimas is particularly popular with sci-fi followers because its substantial Herschel Crater– called for English astronomer William Herschel, that uncovered this moon in 1789– makes Mimas look sort of like the Fatality Star from Celebrity Wars.
In 1980, NASA’s Voyagers I and also II spacecraft returned some fuzzy shots of Mimas. Yet we got an actually good look in 2010, when NASA’s Cassini explorer began sending back premium photos of this, the tiniest as well as closest of Saturn’s 7 moons.
And also currently for some fun truths concerning Mimas.
Exactly how small is it?
Its face is smaller sized than 250 miles throughout.
How close is it?
Its orbit is elliptical exerciser, however Mimas’s averages a range from Saturn of about 125,000 miles. (Earth’s moon standards about 239,000 miles from us.)
How much time does Mimas’s orbit take?
The orbit around Saturn takes around 23 hours– specifically half the time it takes Tethys, a sister moon.
Just how about all those craters?
They cover Mimas’s surface, making it one of the most crater-pocked points in our planetary system.
How large is the greatest crater?
The Herschel Crater sprawls throughout one-third of the moon’s face, concerning 81 miles, as well as its outer walls are greater than three miles high! The effect might have destroyed Mimas, according to some researchers. Yet it really did not. #MimasStrong
So what’s Mimas made from?
Thanks to its low density, we assume it’s mainly ice.
Any type of other pop-culture recommendations we should find out about?
Why yes! In 2010, Cassini’s heat-detecting equipment (a composite infrared spectrometer) identified a V-shaped series of warm surface area on the moon’s left side. Since heat turns up as red and yellow, it looks a whole lot like a Pac-Man that’s just about to devour on the Herschel Crater.
Which’s just another reason that everybody likes Mimas. Celebrity Wars, Pac-Man, and also a whopping large crater … what more could you ask of one little moon?
