This is the Web Edition of "A Trip Into Space", a Coimbra-based electronic book on space science. Both the texts and the photos are by courtesy of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
| This is the Web Edition of "A Trip Into Space", a Coimbra-based electronic book on space science. Both the texts and the photos are by courtesy of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
|
A Trip Into Space  Saturn Satellites And Rings Saturn's Satellite Mimas |
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| See also: Saturnian Satellite Fact Sheet |   |
The conspicuous crater on the surface of Saturn's moon Mimas is seen in this image taken by NASA's Voyager 1 on Nov. 12, 1980 when the spacecraft was 540,000 kilometers (324,000 miles) from the satellite. The massive crater, whose proportionate size (approximately 100 kilometers or 60 miles) is about one-quarter of the satellite's diameter (390 kilometers or 235 miles) is without precedent among the explored objects of the solar system. The impact that formed the crater was probably almost large enough to shatter Mimas into two or more fragments. The Voyager Project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
Last Update: 2004-Nov-27