{"id":99035,"url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/99035-mimas-small-moon-with-a-big-crater","short_url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/99035","headline":"Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater","content":"\u003cp\u003eNASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it.  What remains is one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest round moons.  Analysis indicates that a slightly larger impact would have destroyed Mimas entirely.  The huge crater, named Herschel after the 1789 discoverer of Mimas, Sir William Herschel, spans about 130 kilometers and is featured here. Mimas' low mass produces a surface gravity just strong enough to create a spherical body but weak enough to allow such relatively large surface features. Mimas is made of mostly water ice with a smattering of rock - so it is accurately described as a big dirty snowball. The featured image was taken during the closest-ever flyby of the robot spacecraft Cassini past Mimas in 2010 while in orbit around Saturn.   Interactive: Take a trek across Mimas\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto by NASAJPL-CaltechSpace Science InstituteCassini\u003c/p\u003e","content_plain":"NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:\n\nWhatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it.  What remains is one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest round moons.  Analysis indicates that a slightly larger impact would have destroyed Mimas entirely.  The huge crater, named Herschel after the 1789 discoverer of Mimas, Sir William Herschel, spans about 130 kilometers and is featured here. Mimas' low mass produces a surface gravity just strong enough to create a spherical body but weak enough to allow such relatively large surface features. Mimas is made of mostly water ice with a smattering of rock - so it is accurately described as a big dirty snowball. The featured image was taken during the closest-ever flyby of the robot spacecraft Cassini past Mimas in 2010 while in orbit around Saturn.   Interactive: Take a trek across Mimas\n\n\n\nPhoto by NASAJPL-CaltechSpace Science InstituteCassini","published_at":"2021-05-31T12:16:05-07:00","updated_at":"2026-07-07T18:04:22-07:00","author":{"type":"Person","name":"Specola-","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/profiles/298285-specola"},"description":"Stay up-to-date with Specola on Kudos365. View their photo published May/31/2021 on Science and Technology. Browse your favorite topics and share your expertise, too.","type":"photo","image":"https://k365pi.imgix.net/77c22381-847a-492f-a9cd-7c0d86013876.jpg?auto=compress,format\u0026fit=max\u0026w=1200\u0026h=1200\u0026q=48","likes_count":4,"comments_count":1,"categories":[{"name":"Science and Technology","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/categories/986-science-and-technology"}],"schema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"CreativeWork","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/news/99035-mimas-small-moon-with-a-big-crater","headline":"Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater","image":"https://k365pi.imgix.net/77c22381-847a-492f-a9cd-7c0d86013876.jpg?auto=compress,format\u0026fit=max\u0026w=1200\u0026h=1200\u0026q=48","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Specola-","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/profiles/298285-specola"},"datePublished":"2021-05-31T12:16:05-07:00","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/LikeAction","userInteractionCount":4}],"subjectOf":[{"@type":"Thing","name":"Science and Technology","url":"https://www.kudos365.com/categories/986-science-and-technology"}]}}