31 March, 2010

Mimas Surprises Again

Saturn's moon Mimas is somewhat famous for looking like the Death Star from Star Wars.


Well, it seems as if Mimas is even more of a geek than we thought.

The Cassini spacecraft recently made a pass by Mimas and took surface temperature measurements. Scientists at JPL processed the data in order to get a view of what the temperature distribution was like on the surface, and as is their standard practice they assigned a color scheme whereby colder areas would be colored blue to purple, warmer areas red to yellow. This is what they got:


Wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka....

Bad Astronomy asks:
If the warm part eats that dot in the middle, will the other moons of Saturn turn into ghosts so Mimas can eat them and get points?

More details at the Bad Astronomy blog.

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