Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Mimas, small 400 kilometre-diameter moon of Saturn, is host to 130 kilometre-diameter Herschel crater, one of the larger impact craters in the entire Solar System. The robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn in 2010 recorded this startling view of small moon and big crater while making a 10,000-kilometre record close pass by the diminutive icy world. Shown in contrast-enhanced false colour, the image data reveal more clearly that Herschel's landscape is coloured slightly differently from heavily cratered terrain nearby. The colour difference could yield surface composition clues to the violent history of Mimas. Of course, an impact on Mimas any larger than the one that created the 130-kilometre Herschel might have destroyed the small moon of Saturn.