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Tiny Moon is No Space Station

Posted by michael on from the stay-on-target dept.

An anonymous reader writes "With today's image release, Cassini's tour of Saturn's remarkable system of 31 moons has taken the probe past one of the ringed planet's natural wonders: Mimas. The 250 mile wide satellite suffered a catastrophic impact that opened a wound one third of its diameter and nearly split the moon in half. Today, Mimas bears a striking resemblance to the original Star Wars' Death Star, which wreaked havoc on planets using its laser-focusing dish. In place of the laser dish, Mimas carries a crater peak the size of Mount Everest."

18 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. I feel a disturbance in the 'Net... by Zarf · · Score: 4, Funny

    as if thousands of web-browsers cried out and slashdotted a server.

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    [signature]
  2. That's no moon... by kyz · · Score: 4, Funny

    actually, no, sorry, it is a moon.

    --
    Does my bum look big in this?
    1. Re:That's no moon... by awtbfb · · Score: 3, Funny


      Shouldn't this be: from the Many Bothans died for this information dept.?

  3. Have we really gotten close enough yet? by shaitand · · Score: 3, Funny

    I dunno, that peak in the center could just be the carefully hidden tip of the laser.

    That picture looks like it was still taken from aways off and surely the Empire wouldn't want a passing shuttle to uncover it.

    Nope, short of a closer look, possibly a few rovers and manned flights I think for now we better continue to assume that it IS in fact a space station planning the immenient distruction of earth. Likely they were on their way here and ran out of gas.

  4. 1997 Star Wars? by JHromadka · · Score: 4, Funny
    Although the icy moon bears a striking resemblance to the fictional 1997 'Death Star' from the Star Wars film by George Lucas, this low-density satellite probably had a more likely past not as a weapon or space station, but instead as a victim of one catastrophic day in its ancient history. That day Mimas came closer to dying rather than committing any planet-scale homicide.

    1997? I know Lucas would like for us to forget about that "quaint" 70's version of the film, I didn't think he'd get scientific institutions to buy it!

    --
    "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
    1. Re:1997 Star Wars? by iainl · · Score: 2, Informative

      The circular explosion effect is even called a 'Praxis Ring' at ILM, after they first created the effect for the beginning of Star Trek VI. They've since used it all over the shop.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  5. dark side points by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 2, Funny

    As geeky as we are, my friends and I argue who actually got the dark side points for blowing Alderaan into many small bits.

    Tarkin, Vader, The Emperor... or that Imperial Officer who pulled the switch.

    --
    "I only speak the truth"
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  6. No progress yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Voyager I took a much better picture of Mimas in 1980. Even the link given in the story mentions it. Let's wait until Cassini makes a flyby of Mimas before we get excited.

  7. There would be a LOT more replies.. by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... had they posted this Friday night.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  8. Alien Practical Joke :-) by Andypoo · · Score: 2, Funny

    It'd be funny if the initial broadcast of Star Wars was captured by a passing alien freighter who enjoyed it so much that they decided to "sculpt" a nearby moon to look similarly as appreciation :)

  9. Death Star? by Gleng · · Score: 3, Funny
    Mimas bears a striking resemblance to the original Star Wars' Death Star, which wreaked havoc on planets using its laser-focusing dish.

    Thanks, on behalf of everyone, for the explanation. I'm sure that no one who visits this site knows how the Death Star works.

    --
    "Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
  10. Size by NIK282000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Oddly enough the death star would fit nicely into the crater. The crater is about 130km across and the death star one is 120km across.

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    Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
    1. Re:Size by cujo_1111 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I hereby label you Uber-Nerd, for actually knowing the physical dimensions for something that was never referenced in the movie.

      You dressed as a stormtrooper for the Ep 2 release, didn't you?

      --
      If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
    2. Re:Size by OOO0000OO0O0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      He's not a Uber-Nerd yet, because he hasn't speculated on the possibiltiy of introducing smaller death stars within that indentation in the death star, to create a fractal death star that has a theoretically infinite line of sight. Oh, and he hasn't said whether the dish is spherical or parabolic--lots of engineering things to consider: Spherical indentations make the most sense for combining multiple laser beams, but parabolic dishes will help you assimilate jamming waves and add signal power. *runs*

  11. That's no synopsis. . . by Bastian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    . . .that's a plagarism!

    Really, editors. Read the articles and if the submitter ripped part of it in place of writing their own synopsis, give credit where credit is due.

  12. Death star sites slashdoted by erice · · Score: 5, Funny

    The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant, next to the power of the Slashdot effect.

  13. Compare by Scarblac · · Score: 4, Informative

    This picture is by Voyager, in 1980: APOD 990425. Doesn't look much worse to me (IANAA). No idea how close to Mimas Voyager was compared to Cassini, of course.

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    I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
    1. Re:Compare by Gogo+Dodo · · Score: 4, Informative

      The caption for the original photo, it says that it was taken from 540,000 kilometers (324,000 miles) away. The Cassini image was taken at 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) away.