Saturn's Satellite 'Mimas' looks like the 'Death Star'

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The 'Death Star' of Star Wars was built to destroy planets. But the Cassini orbiter of NASA has sent images of a death star in our own solar system. The only difference is that this one doesn't destroy planets, it revolves around one.

The new images were of Mimas, one of the natural satellites orbiting Saturn. Mimas has a barren grey surface with a single large crater that makes it looks like the death star.

According to NASA, the image was taken on 22nd October 2016 with the Cassini spacecraft's onboard narrow-angle camera. The image was taken using a combination of spectral filters so that only wavelengths in the vicinity of 338 nanometers got in. Every pixel in the image is equivalent to 1 kilometer ( 0.62 miles)

Mimas was discovered by William Herschel in 1789. And to honor Herschel, the largest crater on Mimas was named the 'Herschel crater. The temperature on Mimas being around -209 degree celsius, leaves no hope of finding life. Also due to its extremely low surface gravity, Mimas has a negligible atmosphere which further gives the 'Death Star' connotation a background in reality.

The image was taken from a distance of 115,000 miles but the Cassini spacecraft has performed closer flybys of which the closest was from a distance of 5,900 miles.

According to CNET news, Mimas is twice as large as the 'Death Star' is supposed to be. But the shape of the crater resembles a similar depression on the surface of the 'Death Star'.

The news that Mimas resembles the fictional planet destroyer shouldn't be much of a surprise. Many great works of fiction take inspiration from reality. The Death Star might have been inspired from an image of Mimas itself. That would explain the striking visual resemblance between the two.