Mimantean Crater Herschel Honors Mimas Discoverer William Herschel

Summary: Mimantean crater Herschel honors Mimas discoverer William Herschel, who discovered Mimas 20 days after discovering Saturn’s sixth moon, Enceladus.

Detail shows Herschel Crater, with neighboring craters Balin and Dynas (east; right) and Oeta Chasma (north-northwest; left), on leading hemisphere of Saturnian moon Mimas; scale 1:5,000,000 (1 mm = 5 km) at 0 degrees latitude; Preliminary Pictorial Map of Mimas (IMAP 1489) prepared by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Voyager Imaging Team in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; 1982: Public Domain, via USGS Publication Warehouse

Mimantean crater Herschel honors Mimas discoverer William Herschel, whose discovery of Saturn’s seventh moon, Mimas, occurred 20 days after his discovery of Saturn’s sixth moon, Enceladus.

Herschel Crater prominently straddles the equator of Mimas, one of the seven ellipsoidal satellites of the sixth planet from the sun, Saturn. The huge impact crater distinguishes itself as the dominant feature on the Saturnian moon’s heavily cratered landscape. It is located on the leading hemisphere of its parent body.

Herschel Crater is centered at minus 1.38 degrees south latitude, 111.76 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend to 18.14 degrees north and minus 21.5 degrees south, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes stretch to 90.91 degrees west and 131.1 degrees west, respectively.

Herschel Crater’s diameter spans 139 kilometers. Its diameter equates to “nearly one-third the diameter of Mimas itself” (page 5), according to U.S. Astrogeology Science Center astrogeologist Raymind Milner Batson (July 8, 1931-May 5, 2013) in Voyager 1 and 2 Atlas of Six Saturnian Satellites, published by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1984. Batson detailed Mimas’ diameter at 394 kilometers.

Mimas’ conspicuous crater profiles as a “classic central-peak crater,” (page 424) according to planetary geologists Jeffrey Moore, Paul Schenk, Lindsey Bruesch, Erik Asphaug and William McKinnon in “Large Impact Features on Middle-Sized Icy Satellites,” published in the October 2004 issue of Icarus. They determined the central peak’s rise at approximately 6 to 8 kilometers (3.72 to 4.97 miles) above the crater’s floor.

Two craters, Balin and Dynas, lie to the east of Herschel Crater. Dynas is found almost due east of Herschel. Balin is sited to the northwest of Balin.

Balin is centered at 14.71 degrees north latitude, 82.51 degrees west longitude. The crater’s registers its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 20.56 degrees north and 9.51 degrees north, respectively. It obtains its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 78.33 degrees west and 88.3 degrees west, respectively. With a diameter of 35 kilometers, Balin is approximately one-fourth of Herschel Crater’s size.

Dynas is centered at 2.35 degrees north latitude, 80.71 degrees west longitude. Its northernmost and southernmost latitudes occur at 7.6 degrees north and minus 3.86 degrees south, respectively. The crater finds its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 74.56 degrees west and 86.56 degrees west, respectively. With a diameter of 35 kilometer, Dynas is similarly sized to Balin.

Herschel’s north-northwestern rim cuts into Oeta Chasma. The degraded chasm is centered at 19 degrees north latitude, 122.7 degrees west longitude. Oeta obtains its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 35 degrees north and 8 degrees north, respectively. The chasm marks its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 111.4 degrees west and 132 degrees west, respectively. Oeta Chasma’s diameter measures 110 kilometers.

Mimantean crater Herschel honors German-British astronomer William Herschel (Nov. 15, 1738-Aug. 25, 1822). The IAU approved the crater’s name in 1982, during the organization’s XVIIIth (18th) General Assembly, held in Patras, Greece, from Tuesday, Aug. 17, to Thursday, Aug. 26.

William Herschel discovered Mimas on Thursday, Sept. 17, 1789. Only 20 days earlier, on Friday, Aug. 28, he had made his discovery of Enceladus as Saturn’s sixth moon.

Features on Mimas receive their names from Arthurian legend or Greek mythology. Herschel Crater stands out as the only one of the 35 named Mimantean craters with a non-Arthurian name.

Herschel Crater’s eastern neighbors, Balin and Dynas, owe their names to Arthurian legend. The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature’s entries describe Sir Balin as a knight of “matchless courage and virtue” and Sir Dynas as “a knight of the Round Table.”

Balin, Dynas and 27 other Mimantean craters joined Herschel Crater in receiving approval of their names in 1982 during the IAU’s XVIIIth (18th) General Assembly. Official approval of six of the 35 named Mimantean craters was given on July 14, 2008.

The IAU also approved names from Arthurian legend and Greek mythology for eight chasmata in 1982. The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature describes the origin of Oeta Chasma’s name as “Shook by a Titan in the war between Titans and Olympians.”

The takeaways for Mimantean crater Herschel’s honoring of Mimas discoverer William Herschel are that the German-British astronomer’s discovery of Saturn’s seventh satellite occurred only 20 days after his discovery of the ringed planet’s sixth satellite and that Herschel Crater claims the exclusive honor of a historical namesake among Mimas’ 35 named craters.

Artist’s rendering of interior of Mimantean crater Herschel depicts the crater’s walls and its central peaks rising above the crater’s floor, against the backdrop of Mimas’ primary, ringed planet Saturn; illustration by David Seal, mission planner and engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Detail shows Herschel Crater, with neighboring craters Balin and Dynas (east; right) and Oeta Chasma (north-northwest; left), on leading hemisphere of Saturnian moon Mimas; scale 1:5,000,000 (1 mm = 5 km) at 0 degrees latitude; Preliminary Pictorial Map of Mimas (IMAP 1489) prepared by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Voyager Imaging Team in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; 1982: Public Domain, via USGS Publication Warehouse @ https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/i1489

Artist’s rendering of interior of Mimantean crater Herschel depicts the crater’s walls and its central peaks rising above the crater’s floor, against the backdrop of Mimas’ primary, ringed planet Saturn; illustration by David Seal, mission planner and engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herschel_Crater.jpg

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