Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, stands alone in this fascinating frame captured by the Cassini spacecraft in 2004. Among Saturn's larger moons, Mimas is the smallest, with a diameter of only 198 kilometers (123 miles). The moon's most striking feature is a massive impact crater with a small rise in the center that has been likened to the Death Star in Star Wars.

At the bottom of the image are Saturn's rings, while at the top is a narrow gap known as the Cassini region. Both this space and the spacecraft that captured the image are named after Jean-Dominique Cassini, the astronomer who first discovered Saturn's moons. The rings cast shadows on the cold, blue-toned surface of Saturn's northern hemisphere, merging with the darkness on the night side of the planet.

Image description:

Two bands of color radiate across this space photograph: a brownish-tan line at the bottom of the image and blue-white lines radiating downward from left to right. A small moon, half in shadow, touches one of the white bands near the right side of the image.

 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Institute for Space Science