A Closer Look at Mimas

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The Saturn Moon Mimas

Mimas is an inner moon of Saturn and is the innermost of the major moons, which are Enceliadus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Phoebe. Mimas has a crater named the Herschel Crater, which is approximately 88 miles and one-third the diameter of Mimas. The walls of the Herschel Crater are approximately 3 miles high and parts of the floor of the crater range approximately 6 miles deep. The central peak towers of the Herschel Crater on Mimas are almost 4 miles above the floor of the crater. To imagine this crater on Earth, it would be around 4,000 kilometers.

A English astronomer named William Herschel, had been using his 40-foot reflector telescope when he had made the discovery of Mimas on September 17, 1789. The name Mimas comes from the god (or Titan) Mimas in Greek mythology who was slain by one of the gods of Olympus in the war between the Olympians and the Titans. His son, John Herschel, suggested that the moons of Saturn be associated with Greek mythical brothers and sisters of Kronus, known to the Romans as Saturn. This tradition had begun with the publication of John Herschel's 1847 book.

Mimas averages 246 miles in diameter and its shock waves from the Herschel impact may have caused the fractures that were created as a result on the opposite side of Mimas, which many scientists have researched. Mimas shape is not quite big enough to hold a round shape. Mimas is known to be the smallest known astronomical body that is thought to be rounded in shape due to the result of its self-gravitation. Mimas orbits at a range of 115,280 miles from Saturn in a time frame of 22 hours 37 minutes. Mimas’ orbit makes it the closest major moon of all moons of Saturn. Mimas is known to be tida...

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...round 84 Kelvin (minus 310 degrees Fahrenheit). This is what I have learned about reading the material that has been based on the moon Mimas.This has been a truly remarkable experience in performing the research on the moon Mimas. I have learned a lot from reading the information on the resources I have gathered completing this research, and from what I have learned from Astronomy 115 with David Jeschke who is an instructor at Pierce College. I hope you have enjoyed reading this and learning some of the things I have learned from creating this research paper.

Works Cited

http://www.seasky.org/solar-system/saturn-mimas.html

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/mimas.htm

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Mimas

http://www.universetoday.com/57972/mimas

http://www.windows2universe.org/saturn/moons/mimas.html

http://nineplanets.org/mimas.html

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