How wide is the moon itself? ~390km. The crater's name is Herschel, it's ~130km wide and 9km deep. It's amazing that the impact didn't shatter Mimas to bits.
------------------ Lyta Vorlon: "Our great mistake. Our failing. And now your failing. The error is compounded." Delenn: "What mistake?" Lyta Vorlon: "The first one, the one from which all mistakes proceed: The error of Pride..."
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Hmm... I hate when someone else posts when I post.
My source says: "This image of Mimas was acquired by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on November 11, 1980. The large crater on the right limb is named Herschel. It is 130 kilometers (80 miles) wide and one-third the diameter of Mimas. Herschel is 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep, with a central mountain almost as high as Mount Everest on Earth. This impact probably came close to disintegrating the moon."
[This message was edited by Altair on March 16, 1999.]
Anyway, these sorts of craters are semi-jokingly refered to as death stars. Er...at least I knew some folks who did.
Mercury has a similar feature, the Caloris Crater. And, as The Vorlon mentioned, these impacts were of such force that had they only been slightly faster or larger they would have shattered their respective targets. As it is, if you look at the side of the object opposite the impact, the terrain is visibly jumbled, due to the shockwaves.
------------------ "I'll be the sky above the Ganges I'll be the vast and stormy sea. I'll be the lights that guide you inward. I'll be the visions you will see." -- R.E.M.
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Thats where Rimmer and Lister boarded Red Dwarf of course!
------------------ With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Capt. Jean-Luc Picard - The Drumhead
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