APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
The Great Basin on Saturn's Tethys
Explanation: Some moons wouldn't survive the collision. Tethys , one of Saturn's larger moons at about 1000 kilometers in diameter, survived the collision, but sports today the expansive impact crater Odysseus. Sometimes called the Great Basin , Odysseus occurs on the leading hemisphere of Tethys and shows its great age by the relative amount of smaller craters that occur inside its towering walls . Another large crater, Melanthius , is visible near the moon's terminator . The density of Tethys is similar to water-ice . The above digitally enhanced image was captured in July by the robot Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn as it swooped past the giant ice ball .
| Date | September 9, 2007 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: Cassini Imaging Team , SSI , JPL , ESA , NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |



