Tiny Moon is No Space Station 59

Posted by michael on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @08:52PM 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."

Tiny Moon is No Space Station

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I feel a disturbance in the 'Net... (Score:5, Funny)

by Zarf ( 5735 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @09:01PM (#9818203) Journal

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

- Re:I feel a disturbance in the 'Net... (Score:2)
  
  by Feztaa ( 633745 ) writes:
  
  it would be funnier if the server was actually dead... it loaded fine for me.
  - Re:I feel a disturbance in the 'Net... (Score:1)
    
    by Zarf ( 5735 ) writes:
    
    Yes, well... when else was I going to use that joke?
That's no moon... (Score:5, Funny)

by kyz ( 225372 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @09:09PM (#9818266) Homepage

actually, no, sorry, it is a moon.

- Re:That's no moon... (Score:1)
  
  by fini ( 571717 ) writes:
  
  No, it's not a moon ! It's a giant death star threatening our civilisation !
  
  Only one solution : preemptive invasion ! We must immediately pour gigantic ressources in space technology and all sorts of other related cool stuff ! Quick ! It's a matter of survival !
- Re:That's no moon... (Score:4, Funny)
  
  by awtbfb ( 586638 ) writes: on Wednesday July 28, 2004 @02:23PM (#9824071)
  
  Shouldn't this be: from the Many Bothans died for this information dept.?
  
Let me be the first to say (Score:1)

by schnits0r ( 633893 ) writes:

It's a trap! Sorry someone was going to say it, so we may as well get it out the way.
- Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:1)
  
  by cujo_1111 ( 627504 ) writes:
  
  Ackbar for President 2004!
Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:4, Funny)

by shaitand ( 626655 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @09:24PM (#9818360) Journal

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.

- Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:1)
  
  by the real darkskye ( 723822 ) writes:
  
  Maybe they just stopped to take a closer look at a strange black monolith they noticed on their way here
- Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:2)
  
  by zhenlin ( 722930 ) writes:
  
  And there's no better place to refuel than in the orbit of a hydrogen gas giant, is there?
- Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:2)
  
  by awtbfb ( 586638 ) writes:
  
  Correction:
  I dunno, that peak in the center could just be the carefully hidden tip of a "giant" laser.
  - Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:1)
    
    by shaitand ( 626655 ) writes:
    
    I thought that went without saying, this is after all supposed to be a planetbuster right? :P
1997 Star Wars? (Score:4, Funny)

by JHromadka ( 88188 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @09:25PM (#9818372) Homepage

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!

- Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)
  
  by Ayaress ( 662020 ) writes:
  
  Looks like some lame-brain did a really bad google search. 1997 sounds about right for the Special Edition release, but I'm not sure about that either.
- Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)
  
  by Dachannien ( 617929 ) writes:
  
  The implication, of course, is that if you fired proton torpedoes into the center of Mimas, it would burst apart with a brilliant ring explosion.
  - Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:1)
    
    by cujo_1111 ( 627504 ) writes:
    
    Surprisingly like any recent Star Trek explosion...
    - Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)
      
      by ConceptJunkie ( 24823 ) writes:
      
      Don't forget the Earth in the HHGTTG movie teaser. Haven't we seen the ring thing enough now? It's staler than the stuff they stole from The Matrix.
    - Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2, Informative)
      
      by iainl ( 136759 ) writes:
      
      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.
- Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)
  
  by hcdejong ( 561314 ) writes:
  
  The article now reads 1977 instead of 1997.
dark side points (Score:2, Funny)

by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) writes:

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.
- Solution: (Score:2)
  
  by stealth.c ( 724419 ) writes:
  
  Tarkin and Vader do for issuing the order (Tarkin gets double: he double-crossed Leia as he did so). The officer remains neutral because he was just following an order and was probably an NPC to begin with. The Emperor wasn't even there. Don't award him any for it this time, he makes up for it in RotJ.
  
  The real question is: Who gets the experience points for knocking out Boba Fett? Han? Lando? The sarlacc? That stick Han accidentally hit him with? The jetpack? Or R2 for starting the whole mess?
  - The Emperor (Score:1)
    
    by torpor ( 458 ) writes:
    
    The Emperor wasn't even there.
    
    Dude, he's the freakin' Emperor, okay, he gets whatever dark points his minions are collecting, times 20 just for being a homicidal lightning-handed badass with the galaxies worst case of acne.
No progress yet (Score:2, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

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.
There would be a LOT more replies.. (Score:3, Funny)

by NanoGator ( 522640 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @09:54PM (#9818519) Homepage Journal

... had they posted this Friday night.

Alien Practical Joke :-) (Score:2, Funny)

by Andypoo ( 619268 ) writes:

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 :)
Death Star? (Score:4, Funny)

by Gleng ( 537516 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @10:04PM (#9818577)

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.

- Re:Death Star? (Score:1)
  
  by Punboy ( 737239 ) * writes:
  
  I didn't! P.S. Your sig should read "Proudly Posting Without Reading The Fucking Article"
  - Re:Death Star? (Score:2)
    
    by Pogue Mahone ( 265053 ) writes:
    
    There was a fucking article too? Damn, must've missed it while I was reading about Mimas.
Size (Score:5, Interesting)

by NIK282000 ( 737852 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @10:06PM (#9818592) Homepage Journal

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.

- Re:Size (Score:2, Funny)
  
  by cujo_1111 ( 627504 ) writes:
  
  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?
  - Re:Size (Score:2, Funny)
    
    by OOO0000OO0O0 ( 799394 ) writes:
    
    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*
- Re:Size (Score:1)
  
  by slashdotjunker ( 761391 ) writes:
  
  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.
  
  Star Wars is a movie. The Death Star is not real.
- Re:Size (Score:2)
  
  by adeyadey ( 678765 ) writes:
  
  Oddly enough the death star would fit nicely into the crater...
  
  No it wont, since one of these is "real life", and the other "fiction". Sorry to break the news to you all like that, but..
  - Re:Size (Score:1)
    
    by Tukla ( 5899 ) writes:
    
    Well, don't keep us in suspense. Tell us which is which!
Not really news (Score:1, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward writes:

Mimas' unusual topography is hardly news. While Cassini does give us nicer pictures of the satellite, the Solar System's own personal death star has been known about since the Voyager fly-bys in the early '80s (maybe even earlier, but that's the first I heard of it, anyway).

What next,

"Cassini reports Saturn has rings"?
That's no synopsis. . . (Score:5, Interesting)

by Bastian ( 66383 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @11:31PM (#9819046)

. . .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.

Death star sites slashdoted (Score:5, Funny)

by erice ( 13380 ) writes: on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @11:45PM (#9819113) Homepage

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

Mimas isn't the Death Star... (Score:2)

by Dr. Bent ( 533421 ) writes:

...but the AT&T logo [wikipedia.org] is.
Compare (Score:5, Informative)

by Scarblac ( 122480 ) writes: <slashdot@gerlich.nl> on Wednesday July 28, 2004 @01:28AM (#9819534) Homepage

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

- Re:Compare (Score:5, Informative)
  
  by Gogo Dodo ( 129808 ) writes: on Wednesday July 28, 2004 @02:34AM (#9819723)
  
  The caption [nasa.gov] for the original photo [nasa.gov], 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.
  
  - Re:Compare (Score:2)
    
    by adeyadey ( 678765 ) writes:
    
    So if we say that both images are about the same res, its interesting that the CCD camera on Cassini is only about 3 times better than the Vidicon camera on Voyager, in terms of magnification.. At least on a brightish object anyway.
    
    When Cassini gets close up, those extra pixels will tell, I guess, aqnd the CCDs are better in low light..
- Re:Compare (Score:1)
  
  by Tukla ( 5899 ) writes:
  
  Wait, Voyager took pictures of the Death Star? Was this some Star Trek/Star Wars crossover I missed?
ah... (Score:2)

by advocate_one ( 662832 ) writes:

so that's where they parked it...
Understatement of the year (Score:1)

by dave-tx ( 684169 ) writes:

Star Wars' Death Star, which wreaked havoc on planets using its laser-focusing dish
Yeah, and Vader gave Ben Kenobi a "flesh wound" during their light-saber duel.
WMD Found! (Score:1)

by DrCash ( 800431 ) writes:

Somebody needs to tell Bush that NASA has found Saddam's WMD... and we need to launch a mission to Saturn's moon to deal with this! Then watch NASA's budget quadruple! ;-)
In completely unrelated news, NASA astronomers have found evidence of oil on Uranus.
In a Galaxy not so far away (Score:1)

by Foo2rama ( 755806 ) writes:

CNN: Look at Cassini. He's headed for that small moon.

Nasa: I think we can get a pic of the moon before he gets there...he's almost in range.

The small moon begins to take on the appearance of a monstrous spherical battle station.

Dubya: That's no moon! It's a space station.

Random Slahdot comment: It's too big to be a space station.

General US Population: I have a very bad feeling about this.
We got Death Star! (Score:2)

by BaronCarlos ( 34713 ) writes:

(And you know that we got it!)

That was the only thing running though Carlos' head when he was reading this article.

(Reference: StarWarz Gansta Rap)
There's... too many of them... (Score:1)

by jcuervo ( 715139 ) writes:

AUUUUUGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Place your bets on "-1 Redundant" versus "+5 Funny". :D

There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead.

I feel a disturbance in the 'Net... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:I feel a disturbance in the 'Net... (Score:2)

Re:I feel a disturbance in the 'Net... (Score:1)

That's no moon... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:That's no moon... (Score:1)

Re:That's no moon... (Score:4, Funny)

Let me be the first to say (Score:1)

Re:Let me be the first to say (Score:1)

Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:1)

Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:2)

Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:2)

Re:Have we really gotten close enough yet? (Score:1)

1997 Star Wars? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)

Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)

Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:1)

Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)

Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2, Informative)

Re:1997 Star Wars? (Score:2)

dark side points (Score:2, Funny)

Solution: (Score:2)

The Emperor (Score:1)

No progress yet (Score:2, Insightful)

There would be a LOT more replies.. (Score:3, Funny)

Alien Practical Joke :-) (Score:2, Funny)

Death Star? (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Death Star? (Score:1)

Re:Death Star? (Score:2)

Size (Score:5, Interesting)

Re:Size (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Size (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Size (Score:1)

Re:Size (Score:2)

Re:Size (Score:1)

Not really news (Score:1, Insightful)

That's no synopsis. . . (Score:5, Interesting)

Death star sites slashdoted (Score:5, Funny)

Mimas isn't the Death Star... (Score:2)

Compare (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Compare (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Compare (Score:2)

Re:Compare (Score:1)

ah... (Score:2)

Understatement of the year (Score:1)

WMD Found! (Score:1)

In a Galaxy not so far away (Score:1)

We got Death Star! (Score:2)

There's... too many of them... (Score:1)

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