* Astronomy

Saturn's moon Mimas, whose low density suggests that it is primarily composed of ice, has a flattened or oblate shape reminiscent of Saturn's.
The moon's equatorial dimension is nearly 10 percent larger than the polar one due to the satellite's rapid rotation.


Mimas is 397 kilometres across.

This view shows principally the leading hemisphere on Mimas. Mimas' largest crater, Herschel (130 kilometres wide), is centred roughly on the equator and can be seen here. North on Mimas is toward upper left.
The moon's oblateness is exaggerated by Cassini's viewing angle here - the Sun-Mimas-spacecraft, or phase, angle was 5 degrees leaving a sliver of the moon's disk in shadow on the northwest limb.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on May 20, 2005, at a distance of approximately 916,000 kilometres from Mimas. Resolution in the original image was 5 kilometres per pixel.
The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility.