MimasMimas has a very low density, which indicates that the planet is composed mostly of water and ice, with a small amount of rock. The surface of Mimas is dominated
by an impact crater 130 km across, known as Herschel; it's almost
1/3 of the diameter of the entire moon. Herschel's walls are approximately
5 km high, parts of its floor measure 10 km deep, and its central peak
rises 6 km above the crater floor. The impact that made this crater must
have nearly disrupted Mimas. Fractures can be seen on the opposite side
of Mimas that may be due to the same impact.
EnceladusAt least five different types of terrain have been identified on Enceladus. In addition to craters there are smooth plains and extensive linear cracks and ridges. At least some of the surface is relatively young, probably less than 100 million years. This means that
Enceladus must have been active until very recently (and perhaps is still
active today). Perhaps some sort of "water volcanism" is at work.
Enceladus may be the source of the material in Saturn's tenuous E-ring. And since the material cannot persist in the ring for more than a few thousand years, it may be due to very recent activity on Enceladus. Another possibility, though, is that the rings are maintained by high-velocity collisions between dust particles and the various moons.
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