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| The Death Star |
Yesterday was May the Fourth., aka, Star Wars day. Its chosen for its uncanny similarity with a catchphrase from the Star Wars franchise : May the force be with you. Most people have heard of the “Death Star” from the Star Wars franchise. The interesting thing about the Death star is that while it is a celestial body out of science fiction, there exists a heavenly body in the solar system that resembles the Death Star. This celestial body is one of the moons of Saturn- Mimas.
Mimas was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. It is a fairly small moon, with a diameter of about 396 km. In fact, it is the smallest object in the solar system known to have acquired a round shape by virtue of its gravity. Mimas is named after one of the giants in Greek mythology. Saturn’s moons are named after Titans, because Saturn was the leader of the Titans. This nomenclature was introduced by William Herschel’s son, John Herschel.
So, how is it that a fairly small moon of Saturn, which by no means appears special yet, is a part of the folklore of May the Fourth? Well, Mimas’ most interesting feature is a crater, which is aptly named Herschel. Herschel is a huge crater, making up almost one-third of Mimas’ diameter! The crate resembles the concave super laser of the Death Star, and is thus the reason why Mimas is considered to be eerily similar to the Death Star.
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| Mimas |
This raises a question. Did the Death Star come first or Mimas? Well, Mimas might have been discovered nearly 2 centuries prior to the inception of Star Wars, but, high resolution pictures of Mimas were obtained only after the Death Star had already made an appearance in Star Wars!
This just goes to show the incredible beauty and awesome diversity of the celestial bodies that are present in our close neighborhood.
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