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An unusual view of the Death Star moon

Explore the fascinating moon of Saturn, Mimas, and its mysterious blue band revealed in stunning Cassini images.

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If you showed me this picture with no preamble, I'd know it was from Cassini, and showed a moon of Saturn, but I'd be baffled as to which one it is:

[Click to ensithenate.] If you told me it was Mimas, I'd be surprised... and I was when I saw it! But it's true. Mimas is a 400 km ball of mostly ice (and some rock) orbiting Saturn about 180,000 km out. From this angle, Cassini was looking down at the north pole from a steep angle, and that's not how we usually see it.

This is how we usually see it! The giant crater Herschel dominates the face of the moon, giving it as definite Vaderesque feel. But in the big image the crater isn't visible, so the landscape looks markedly different. This image was processed by Ian Regan, who notes that the blue band you can see around ...

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