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Herschel (/ ˈ h ɜːr ʃ əl /) is the largest impact crater on the Saturnian moon Mimas. It is located on Mimas's leading hemisphere, centered on the equator at 112° longitude . It is named after the 18th-century astronomer William Herschel , who discovered Mimas in 1789.
Mimas's most distinctive feature is a giant impact crater 139 km (86 mi) across, named Herschel after the discoverer of Mimas. Herschel's diameter is almost a third of Mimas's own diameter; its walls are approximately 5 km (3 mi) high, parts of its floor measure 10 km (6 mi) deep, and its central peak rises 6 km (4 mi) above the crater floor.
This is a list of named geological features on Mimas, a moon that orbits the planet Saturn. Mimantean features are named after people and places in Arthurian legend or the legends of the Titans . The sole exception to this is Herschel Crater , named after William Herschel , the astronomer who discovered Mimas in 1789.
There are several impact craters named Herschel in the Solar System, although the best known is the huge crater on Saturn's moon Mimas. Most are named after the eighteenth-century astronomer William Herschel. Herschel (lunar crater), on the Moon; Herschel (Martian crater), on Mars; Herschel (Mimantean crater), on Mimas
Crater Crater diameter Body diameter Ratio Images Notes Mercury: Caloris: 1,550 km (963 mi) 4,880 km 32% Rembrandt: 715 km (444 mi) 15% Venus: Mead: 280 km (170 mi) 12,100 km 2% Earth: Vredefort: 250–300 km (160–190 mi) 12,740 km 2% Chicxulub crater: 182 km (113 mi) 1.4% Cause or contributor of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event ...
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The article says that Mimas has "the second largest crater on any moon in the Solar System", measuring 139 km. This information is linked to the article List of largest craters in the Solar System , that shows that many satellites have craters bigger than Herschel; considering only the moons of Saturn, Herschel is the 10th!