Herschel (Mimantean crater)

Herschel is the largest impact crater on Saturn's moon Mimas.

The crater is the largest and most prominent relief feature of Mimas. It has a diameter of about 130 km and thus makes one third of the diameter of the moon from. Its crater wall is almost 5 km high, its floor is partly 10 km below the surrounding terrain, and its central peak rises at least 6 km above the ground. Since the sharpest shots of Mimas by Cassini spacecraft from 1 August 2005, the height of the central mountain is even estimated to be 11 km. He is one of the highest mountains in the central solar system.

The impact, which gave rise to this crater must have nearly tore the moon. On the opposite side of Mimas areas fractures and dislocations are observed, which were likely caused by the seismic waves of the impact shock.

The crater is located on that hemisphere, which runs ahead of the orbital motion and, at the center of its central mountain almost exactly on the equator. It was named in 1982 by the IAU discovered after the British astronomer William Herschel, who Mimas on 17 September 1789.

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