Cool Photo of Mimas

I won’t make the “that’s no moon, that’s a space station” remark, because every other blogger who’s ever posted a picture of Saturn’s moon Mimas has already said it. Even so, I gotta say that this thing looks enough like the Death Star to give me the willies. We’d better hope that really is just a big impact crater there in the upper hemisphere, and that this thing doesn’t someday start moving toward Earth under its own power…

Mimas with rings.jpg

Technical note, for those who may care: this image of Mimas against the backdrop of Saturn’s rings was taken by the Cassini spacecraft. Details can be found here.

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2 comments on “Cool Photo of Mimas

  1. Dave

    I just hae to say…Mimas is 247 mi. in diameter…George Lucas (a long time ago said in, I’m sure, a long-forgotten interview…that the Death Star was around 200 mi. in diameter. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Perhaps the Death Star with a thick layer of dust would come out to about that size. Well, us your imagination.

  2. jason

    There are no coincidences. I’m sure someday we’ll land a probe on Mimas and discover that it’s an ancient battlestation, built by beings long forgotten and stored in a safe Saturnian orbit for eons until they could return for it… 😉