What caused the giant crater on Mimas?

What caused the giant crater on Mimas?

Like the Death Star, Mimas has found itself on the receiving end of some heavy fire. The crater was probably caused by an enormous asteroid impact. But the moon only just survived – if the asteroid had been any bigger or moving much faster, it probably would have split the moon in two.

How big is Mimas crater?

Most of the Mimas surface is saturated with impact craters ranging in size up to greater than 25 miles (40 kilometers) in diameter. However, the craters in the South Pole region of Mimas are generally 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter or less.

Why is Mimas called the Death Star?

Mimas, Saturn’s cryptic-looking moon, is awfully deceptive. The small moon is dominated by an 80-mile-wide crater, giving it the appearance of the grim Star Wars Death Star — a space station equipped with a planet-destroying weapon.

What was found on Mimas?

What caused the biggest crater on Earth?

No, the largest crater on Earth was from an event that preceded the end of the dinosaurs by a billion years. The Paleogene extinction was an event that killed off non-avian dinosaurs on the planet. This extinction event was heralded by a massive asteroid impact. The asteroid is known as the Chicxulub impactor.

What caused the crack on the Moon?

The moon is shrinking, and Earth is to blame for how the moon’s crust has cracked. Scientists reported the shrinkage in 2010, when researchers, led by Thomas R. Watters of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, picked out cracks in images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

What is the largest crater on Earth?

In South Africa, the Vredefort Crater (opens in new tab), also known as the Vredefort Dome is the world’s largest known impact crater, according to NASA Earth Observatory.

What is the biggest crater in the universe?

Body	Crater	Crater diameter
Earth	Chicxulub crater	182 km (113 mi)
Sudbury Basin	130 km (80 mi)
Moon (moon of Earth)	Procellarum	3,000 km (2,000 mi)
South Pole–Aitken basin	2,500 km (1,600 mi)

Body	Crater	Crater diameter
Earth	Chicxulub crater	182 km (113 mi)
Sudbury Basin	130 km (80 mi)
Moon (moon of Earth)	Procellarum	3,000 km (2,000 mi)
South Pole–Aitken basin	2,500 km (1,600 mi)

What is unique about Mimas?

Mimas’ most distinctive feature is the giant impact crater Herschel, named in honor of William Herschel (the discoverer of Uranus, its moons Oberon, and Titania, and the Cronian moons Enceladus and Mimas). This large crater gives Mimas the appearance of the “Death Star” from Star Wars.

Who ran the first Death Star?

As a loyal protégé of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Tarkin became one of the most ardent supporters of the newly declared Empire. Palpatine put Tarkin in charge of construction of the Death Star, a secret project that would take nearly two decades to complete.

Why did the Death Star have a weakness?

The Death Star’s thermal exhaust port was a significant flaw in the design that the Rebels were able to exploit during the Battle of Yavin. This led to the thermal exhaust ports to be removed for the Death Star II, although the Death Star III retained this weakness.

Who is the leader of the Death Star?

Introduced in the first film in the original Star Wars trilogy, Governor Tarkin is the Grand Moff of the Galactic Empire and commander of the Death Star.

Is there water on Mimas?

Saturn’s moon Mimas may be the newest, if not the most unlikely member of the solar system’s family of icy bodies with internal liquid water oceans, according to a new study by Alyssa Rose Rhoden of the Southwest Research Institute and Matthew E.

How long is a day on Mimas?

One day on Mimas is equal to 23 hours.

Is Mimas the closest moon to Saturn?

An icy puzzle Traveling only 115,280 miles (185,520 km) from Saturn, Mimas is the closest major moon orbiting the planet.

Where is the oldest crater on Earth?

About 2 billion years ago, an impactor hurtled toward Earth, crashing into the planet in an area near present-day Johannesburg, South Africa, and forming the Vredefort crater – the biggest and oldest terrestrial impact crater known so far.

When did the last crater hit Earth?

The last known impact of an object of 10 km (6 mi) or more in diameter was at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago. The energy released by an impactor depends on diameter, density, velocity, and angle.

When was the last asteroid to hit Earth?

What Happened in Brief. According to abundant geological evidence, an asteroid roughly 10 km (6 miles) across hit Earth about 65 million years ago.

What caused the large dark regions on the Moon know as maria?

The lunar maria (/ˈmɑːriə/; singular: mare /ˈmɑːreɪ/) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth’s Moon, formed by ancient asteroid impacts on the far side on the Moon that triggered volcanic activity on the opposite (near) side.

What is the largest crater on the moon known by?

The South Pole–Aitken basin (SPA Basin, /ˈeɪtkɪn/) is an immense impact crater on the far side of the Moon. At roughly 2,500 km (1,600 mi) in diameter and between 6.2 and 8.2 km (3.9–5.1 mi) deep, it is one of the largest known impact craters in the Solar System.

What is the big crater at the bottom of the Moon?

The largest confirmed crater on the Moon, and the second largest in the entire solar system, is the South Pole-Aitken basin or SPA. It is about 2500 kilometers in diameter.

What caused Margaret Mead crater?

The flat, somewhat brighter inner floor of Mead is interpreted to result from considerable infilling of the original crater cavity by impact melt and/or by volcanic lavas.