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Imaging Diary - Cassini
Imaging Diary - Voyager
Newsroom - Press Releases
Newsroom - Special Events
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| Mimas...Closer Than Ever Before - Aug 5, 2005 | | | Cassini's closest flyby of Mimas on August 2nd revealed it to be one of the most heavily cratered Saturnian moons, with variations in color across its surface but little if any evidence for internal activity. |
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Home - Captain's Logs
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| A Story of Saturn's Rings - Nov 1, 2010 | | | ... orbital gravitational resonance with Mimas known to be responsible for its ... to become trapped in the strong Mimas resonance at the B ring's edge ... |
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Maps
Artroom
Newsroom - Looking Ahead
Alliance Member Comments
Wisps Before Craters |
Mercury_3488 2011-01-31 13:08:45 | View all member's comments | ***Reminder***
Just to say that around perikrone today, there was a non targetted Mimas pass, as well as that of Enceladus & Helene shortly after. Looking forward to seeing those images, Cassini did not pass that close to any of them, but more than close enough to reveal much new data & views from differing vantage points, than ever before.
Andrew Brown. | |
Rhea 'Rev 143' Raw Preview #3 |
Mercury_3488 2011-01-31 12:52:15 | View all member's comments | Hi Dragon_of_Luck_Mah_Jonng1971.
I agree with you, many of those craters are very Mimas like. I still think that Rhea is very unevolved, one of the largest, in fact potetially the second largest unevolved object in the entire Solar System, only the Jupiter moon Callisto taking # 1 in that list.
The similar sized Uranus moons Titania & Oberon are certainly far more evolved than Rhea, Titania has huge graben, possible frosting & a large smoother region with smaller & softened craters & Oberon although cratered, shows signs of cryovolcanism with many craters having dark floors, at least on huge chasm, many craters appear 'softened' like Enceladus, Dione, Miranda, Ariel, Titania, Triton & Ganymede, worlds that have been & some may, in the case of Enceladus & Triton still are geologically active.
Rhea shows none of that, a surface that is practically craters on craters on craters. Some faulting is present, but how much of that is due to the Tirawa Basin forming event or other impacts, remains to be seen. Rhea is certainly a relic from the earliest days, much to tell us about the history of the Kronian system ,regarding the environment this far out from the Sun & cratering rates of the Kronian system from the period shortly after the formative period. Rhea is fascinating, not so much because of Rhea itself, but because of what Rhea can tell us about the history of the Kronian system as a whole. Iapetus is another moon interesting for the same reason, aside from the huge mountain ridge, little else appears to have happened there either, Mimas too. Rhea is extremely photogenic too. It's an amazing surface visually, craters of differing shapes & sizes, some regions eppear more hilly than others, etc.
Yes they are Cosmic Rays @ the lower left.
Andrew Brown. | |
Eyeing Erulus Crater |
Mercury_3488 2010-12-06 15:08:53 | View all member's comments | Lovely image & fantastic perspective too. One thing immediately obvious to me anyway, not just Erulus Crater is that, a similar view of Tehtys & Rhea would be saturated by small craters. Dione seen here is not. There are some small craters for sure, bet the terrain generally looks 'fresher' & more evolved.
Erulus Crater itself has an interesting central mountain almost Y shaped, certainly obvious on other images taken from further away. More like two ridges in the centre of the crater rather than your typical central crater mountains, like those in the lunar crater Copernicus or the Mimas crater Herschel. Iapetus too shows a few craters with central ridges rather than mountains in the normal sense.
Wonder if Dione has an exosphere like the one recently announced at Rhea?? Dione may still be geologically active on a small scale & certainly apart from Titan & Enceladus is the most evolved of Saturn's moons.
Andrew Brown. | |
Rev133 |
Mercury_3488 2010-06-21 16:06:46 | View all member's comments | Myself I would rather use any excess fuel for a close pass of fascinating Dione or Mimas or one of the lesser known inner moons like Prometheus, Pandora, or a co orbital like Helene, Ploydeuces, Telesto or Calypso. We have had loads of Titan & Enceladus, so a close pass of one of the lesser known ones would be nice. Shame we cannot do Iapetus or Phoebe again, as far too far out. | |
Streaks and Markings on Mimas |
ultomatt 2010-03-30 23:16:35 | View all member's comments | Mimas is stunning up close. Herschel's internal slump, with it's "bathtub" rings, is an amazing image of chaos. The shape of the chaos inside Herschel reminds me that this is a ball of ice...that was shock melted by impact, inside of Herschel.
The detail in these images is excellent. Thanks! | |
Examining Herschel Crater |
Red_dragon 2010-03-29 14:49:20 | View all member's comments | Wonderful mosaic; it's even more dramatic that "Herschel: Dead On" (http://www.ciclops.org/view/728/Herschel_Dead-On); instead of the Death Star, Mimas looks like a frigid eye. | |
Bizarre Temperatures on Mimas |
Red_dragon 2010-03-29 14:45:30 | View all member's comments | At the very first (Voyagers), we had a moon that looked like the "Death Star". Now, with Cassini the Death Star has become Pacman's land; it seems Mimas "loves" the best decade ever -the 80's-.
Jokes apart, this is one of the reasons why to have a Solstice mission: to continue unlocking the many secrets the saturnian system has. As sustayne and NeKto, can't wait to see what surprising explanation you'll have to explain that. Excellent work and keep it up!. | |
Mimas "Rev 126" Flyby Raw Preview #1 |
ultomatt 2010-02-16 20:41:22 | View all member's comments | re: billclawson - I think the lack or ray features is more a measure of the low gravity of Mimas, than anything else. Most ejecta from craters would likely leave Mimas forever...and thus, a very low rate of secondary craters. Probably not non-existent, but very few would make sense to me. And thus, Mimas has very randomly arrayed cratering pretty much at saturation. New craters can't occur without wiping away older craters and crater features.
All just my opinion of course ;) | |
Rev126 |
rochelimit 2010-02-13 01:33:40 | View all member's comments | Very excited, especially for Calypso flyby. I'm not really interested in Mimas flyby though, I always thought Mimas is a usual barren icy moon. But I guess Cassini will find something unique there.
I do hope Cassini planned for an extremely close flyby mission to Saturn's ring to observe the individual boulders that make up the ring, but who am I to wish such thing :)) | |
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