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.
Was the Death Star based on Mimas?
In popular culture. When seen from certain angles, Mimas resembles the Death Star, a fictional space station and superweapon known from the 1977 film Star Wars.
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.
Why is Mimas weird inside?
There’s something strange going on below the surface of Saturn’s Death Star-looking moon Mimas, a new study suggests. Mimas’ rotation and its orbit around Saturn make the moon look like it’s rocking and back forth and oscillating similar to the way a pendulum swings. That rocking motion is called libration.
Is Mimas bigger than Earth?
With a mean radius of 198.2 ± 0.4 km and a mass of about 3.75 ×1019 kg, Mimas is equivalent in size to 0.0311 Earths and 0.0000063 times as massive. Orbiting Saturn at an average distance (semi-major axis) of 185,539 km, it is the innermost of Saturn’s larger moons, and the 8th moon orbiting Saturn.
Why does the face of Mimas face Saturn?
Like a lot of moons in the solar system, including our own, Mimas always shows essentially the same face to its parent planet. This is called a spin-orbit resonance, meaning the moon’s rotation, or spin, is in sync with its orbit around Saturn.
What was found on Mimas?
How far is Mimas from Earth?
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 largest crater ever?
The largest crater on Earth is Vredefort Crater, and it measures 99.41 miles across or 160 kilometers. The crater is located in present-day South Africa.
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) |
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.
Who blew up the first Death Star?
Luke is able to successfully launch his X-wing fighter’s torpedoes into the vent, impacting the core and triggering a catastrophic explosion, which destroys the station before it can annihilate the Rebel base on Yavin 4.
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.
Is Mimas in Saturn’s rings?
Summary: Researchers have shown that Mimas, one of Saturn’s moons, acted as a kind of remote snowplough, pushing apart the ice particles that make up the rings.
Is Mimas geologically active?
Mimas should experience more tidal heating, which should lead to liquid water somewhere inside the moon. Yet Mimas’ heavily cratered surface and lack of geyser-like activity suggests the moon is frozen solid and has been for a long time.
What caused the craters on the Moon?
Craters are the most common surface features on many solid planets and moons—Mercury and our Moon are covered with craters. This portion of the Moon is covered by numerous circular holes. These are impact craters, each of which was formed when an asteroid or comet collided with the Moon’s surface.
What is the main cause of craters on the Moon?
One reason the moon has craters because it gets hit by objects, small pieces of rocks that come from outer space. These are pieces of asteroids, comets that are flying around in the solar system. When they hit the surface, there’s an impact. The moon has no atmosphere, and so even a tiny rock will create a crater.
Why is there a big crater on the moon?
Craters on the Moon are caused by asteroids and meteorites colliding with the lunar surface. The Moon’s surface is covered with thousands of craters. Why does the Moon have so many craters compared to the Earth? Unlike the Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere to protect itself from impacting bodies.
What caused Craters of the Moon National Monument?
Volcanic activity occurred on the Snake River Plain for many millions of years. But Craters of the Moon was formed by eruptions that started only 15,000 years ago and represents the last period of active volcanism in this area. The most recent activity occurred 2,100 years ago.
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