Mimas - One of Saturn's Icy Moons



Mimas is one of the innermost of Saturn's moons. One of the most significant features of this moon is the crater known as Herschel's Crater. This crater is about 80 miles wide, and 6 miles deep! It even has a peak in the middle which rises to about 4 miles, which is comparable to Mount Everest on Earth. The significance in the size of the crater is magnified because the diameter of Mimas itself is only about 250 miles. So the crater goes across about 1/3 of the moon's diameter. It was said that if the object that hit Mimas would have been any larger, Mimas would have been disintegrated. There is even evidence of fractures on the side opposite of Herschel's Crater on Mimas.

Other Icy Moons

Enceladus - displays at least 5 different types of terrain - interior of moon may be liquid

Tethys - has a large trench 65 km wide across its surface

Dione - has rocky core that makes up 1/3 of the moon's mass - the rest is water-ice

Rhea - new impact events wipe out as many old craters as the new ones created

Iapetus - has a mysterious dark coat, probably caused by methane eruptions



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