July 28, 2004

Use the force, Cassini.

Posted by apostropher

Scott Niven notes that the Cassini probe has spotted the Death Star.

mimas death star

Actually, it's Mimas, one of Saturn's many moons. Mimas is only 244 miles wide, while the crater (named Herschel, after the astronomer who discovered the moon) is 84.5 miles wide, meaning the impact that created it would have come within a hair of disintegrating the moon. The mountain rising from the middle of the six-mile-deep crater, at four miles tall, is nearly the size of Everest. The picture was snapped from a distance of about a million miles. Back in 1980, Voyager passed within 264,000 miles from the moon and sent back some much better defined snapshots.

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Comments
1

It can't be the Death Star. The dimple is on the wrong side.

Posted by: Tripp at July 29, 2004 11:58 AM
2

take a look at Enterprisemission.com and the moon of Saturn named - Iapetus. Go all thru the story and photos and tell me if it compares to the Death Star in the movies. No doubt it is an artificial moon.

Posted by: joe phelps at October 18, 2005 03:30 PM
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