Cassini's Zips Past the Death Star

The great eye of Mimas. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

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The great eye of Saturn's moon Mimas (MY-muss), a 130-kilometer-wide (80-mile) impact crater called Herschel, stares out from the battered moon in this raw image taken by the Cassini spacecraft during a flyby on Aug. 2.

The Herschel crater is the moon's most prominent feature, and the impact that formed it probably nearly destroyed Mimas. Cassini flew by Mimas at 62,700 kilometers (38,800 miles) above the moons surface, bringing it closer to the little moon than ever before.

NASA/JPL/SSI News Release