The conspicuous crater on the surface of Saturn's
moon Mimas is seen in this image taken by NASA's Voyager 1 on
Nov. 12, 1980 when the spacecraft was 540,000 kilometers (324,000
miles) from the satellite. The massive crater, whose proportionate
size (approximately 100 kilometers or 60 miles) is about one-quarter
of the satellite's diameter (390 kilometers or 235 miles) is without
precedent among the explored objects of the solar system. The
impact that formed the crater was probably almost large enough
to shatter Mimas into two or more fragments. The Voyager Project
is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
California. (P-23265)
