土卫一的赫歇尔陨石坑

2022年8月13日

Herschel Crater on Mimas
Image Credit Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

Explanation: Mimas, small 400 kilometer-diameter moon of Saturn, is host to 130 kilometer-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-kilometer record close pass by the diminutive icy world. Shown in contrast-enhanced false color, the image data reveal more clearly that Herschel’s landscape is colored slightly differently from heavily cratered terrain nearby. The color 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-kilometer Herschel might have destroyed the small moon of Saturn.

Tomorrow’s picture: 4,000 exoplanets

土卫一的赫歇尔陨石坑
影像提供 Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA

说明: 直径约400公里的土星小卫星土卫一（Mimas），拥有整个太阳系最大撞击坑之一的赫歇尔坑。绕行土星的卡西尼号太空船，在2010年以10,000公里最近距掠过这颗冰质卫星时，拍下了这幅小卫星有大撞击坑的触目惊心景观。在这幅对比经过强化的假色影像里，赫歇尔坑的色泽和满布撞击坑的其余表面稍有差异，因此能清楚分辨赫歇尔坑的细节。这种色泽差异，可为土卫一动荡的历史提供表面成分线索。只要撞击的规模比造成130公里宽赫歇尔坑的事件再大上一点，或许就会摧毁这颗土星的卫星。

明日的图片: 4,000 exoplanets