Meet Mimas: Saturn's Death Star Moon

Saturn’s moon Mimas is dominated by a huge crater called Herschel that makes the moon look like the Death Star from “Star Wars.” This photo was taken Feb. 13, 2010, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Mimas is only 246 miles (396 kilometers) across.

This figure illustrates the unexpected and bizarre Pac-Man like pattern of daytime temperatures found on Saturn’s small inner moon Mimas. The heat map was compiled from data recorded by the Cassini spacecraft during a Feb. 13, 2010 flyby of Mimas.

Mimas, with its large Herschel crater, resembles the Death Star as it looms over Saturn’s rings in this image from Cassini.

This mosaic, created from images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its closest flyby of Saturn’s moon Mimas on Feb. 13, 2010, looks straight at the moon’s Herschel crater and reveals new insights about the moon’s surface. Herschel crater gives Mimas its “Death Star” appearance. It is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) wide.

This false-color view of Saturn’s moon Mimas from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft highlights terrain-dependent color differences and shows dark streaks running down the sides of some of the craters on the region of the moon that leads in its orbit around Saturn. The origin of the color differences (exaggerated by computer enhancement) is not yet understood.

Relatively dark regions below bright crater walls and streaks on some of the walls are seen in this mosaic of Saturn’s moon Mimas, created from images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its closest flyby of the moon on Feb. 13, 2010

Subtle color differences on Saturn’s moon Mimas are apparent in this false-color view of Herschel Crater captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during its closest-ever flyby of that moon on Feb. 13, 2010. The crater is 80 miles (130 kilometers) wide.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured a three-dimensional view of the large Herschel Crater on Saturn’s moon Mimas during its closest-ever flyby of the moon on Feb.13, 2011. The crater is 80 miles (130 kilometers) wide.

Appearing like a cyclops gazing off into space, Saturn’s moon Mimas and its large Herschel Crater are profiled in this view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft taken on Feb. 13, 2010.

The shadow of the moon Mimas creates a smudge on the southern hemisphere of Saturn in this view from the Cassini spacecraft. Image taken Jan. 21, 2012.

As Cassini nears the end of its mission, it continues to beam data back to Earth, including this image of Saturn, its rings and the tiny moon Mimas. The craft’s wide-angle camera captured the image of the sunlit rings on July 21, 2016.

Saturn’s moons Mimas (right) and Janus appear to hang silently in space as they orbit their ringed parent planet in this stunning photo from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft at Saturn. The outer edge of Saturn’s rings, called the ansa, is also visible at left. This image was captured by Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on Oct. 27, 2015 and released by NASA on May 31, 2016.

Although they are both moons of Saturn, Pandora’s small size means that it lacks sufficient gravity to pull itself into a round shape like its larger sibling, Mimas. Image released July 22, 2013.

Saturn’ moon Mimas (top right) appears in light reflected from the ringed planet, called “Saturnshine.” As the sunlight reflected from Saturn decreases significantly in intensity, Mimas has been boosted in brightness 2.5 times that of the rings. Cassini spacecraft obtained the image in visible light with the narrow-angle camera on Feb. 16, 2015. Image released April 13, 2015.

The Saturn moons Dione (left) and Mimas (right) are dwarfed by their giant parent planet in this photo captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on May 27,2015.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took the images making up these new mosaics of Saturn’s moon Mimas during the vehicle’s first ten years exploring the Saturn system.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took the images making up these new mosaics of Saturn’s moon Mimas during the vehicle’s first ten years exploring the Saturn system.