There ’s no two shipway about it : hurricane Sandy is huge . With its whirling winds at one stop stretching a mind blowing 1,100 miles in diameter , it ’s the most tremendous Atlantic hurricane in show history . But Sandy – not to mention our full planet – is still downright tiny compared to Saturn , and few images of the ringed major planet put that world in perspective as dramatically as the mental picture you see here .
Bad Astronomy ’s Phil Plait excuse :
Why does this picture crunch my nous to detritus ? Look at the the very top , near the centerfield . Can you see that dot of light ? You might need to click the picture to get the hi - res version to see it well ; that ’s how small it is .
Except it is n’t . That dot of twinkle is Mimas , a moon of Saturn , and it ’s 400 km – 250 miles – across ! That ’s roughly the size of the state of Missouri , and compared to Saturn it ’s reduced to a simple pixel of Light Within . And even then , Saturn ’s rings are still too big to go in this motion-picture show !
And for those wondering : yes . That Mimas . As in , the Mimas that looks suspiciously like the Death Star , and whose temperature maps bear an uncanny resemblance to Pac Man :
This lunar month , which could just as soon be mistaken for a in full operational struggle place , is dwarfed to the item of pixelation when juxtaposed with its major planet .
[ NASA / CassiniviaBad Astronomy ]
AstronomySaturnScienceSpace
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