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Saturn moon looms like the Death Star in latest photo

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This isn’t a production still from A New Hope, a 1977 science fiction film that kicked off the Star Wars franchise. Instead, it’s an image of Mimas, looking pocked and worn amidst the suffocating darkness of space.

NASA shared the image of the Saturn’s icy moon this week, which highlights its most distinguishing feature: the Herschel Crater. The crater stretches 86 miles wide, almost one-third of the moon’s 246-mile-wide diameter.

Named after the moon’s discoverer William Herschel, the massive crater’s highest peak stands nearly as tall as Mount Everest, according to NASA. Some of its walls, meanwhile, measure three miles high, while its lowest elevation dip is as low as six miles.

Apparently, the impact that left Herschel Crater occurred with such force that the moon displays fractures on the opposite side.

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It looks like the Death Star

With Rogue One having come out last month, it’s hard not to think of the Death Star when gazing upon Mimas. That distinguishing crater looks like the lens for the space station’s superlaser, which is one of the reasons why the Death Star is so feared.

According to NASA, the image of Mimas was acquired at a distance of approximately 115,000 miles last October.

SourceNASA
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