About this episode
This episode explores the fascinating moons of Saturn and their unique features.
Saturn has more moons than any other planet in the solar system – 274 as of this spring. All of the bigger ones are interesting worlds in their own right. Some of them are balls of ice mixed with rock. And they offer some especially eye-catching features. Mimas has a huge impact crater that makes it look like a Star Wars death star. It’s a third as wide as Mimas itself, with walls three miles high and a floor 10 miles deep. It was created by an impact that almost ripped the moon apart. Shockwaves raced all the way around Mimas, creating a jumbled landscape on the opposite side. Iapetus has a couple of giant craters. But it stands out for two other reasons. One is its coloring. One hemisphere is covered with ice, so it’s as white as snow. The other is covered with dust that’s as dark as charcoal. The other thing that makes it stand out is its shape – it resembles a walnut. A mountain range circles its equator. It’s a dozen miles wide, and averages about nine miles high. A region of Dione is marked by cliffs that form bright slashes. The cliffs are up to a thousand feet high, and they stretch across hundreds of miles. They probably formed as…
People in this episode
Host: Billy Henry
Topics covered
- Saturn
- moons
- astronomy
- impact craters
- space observation
Keywords
- Saturn
- moons
- Mimas
- Iapetus
- Dione
- astronomy
- impact craters
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Saturn, Moon, Dione, Iapetus, Mimas
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