Fitnah is an

impact crater An impact crater is a depression (geology), depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact event, impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal c ...

in the northern hemisphere of

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

's moon

Enceladus Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn and the 18th-largest in the Solar System. It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. It is covered by clean, freshly deposited snow hundreds of meters thick, ...

. Fitnah was first observed in ''

Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a space research, space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, i ...

'' images during that mission's February 2005 flyby of Enceladus. It is located at 45.1° North

Latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

, 290.6° West

Longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

and is 16.5 kilometers across. The topography of the impact crater appears very subdued, suggesting that the crater has undergone significant viscous relaxation since its formation, leaving behind only the raised rim behind. The crater is named after a character from the " Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub, the Distraught, the Thrall o’ Love" in ''

The Book of One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of History of the Middle East, Middle Eastern List of fairy tales, folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nigh ...

''. The character is the daughter of Ayyub and sister of Ghanim, and craters named Ghanim and Ayyub are found near the crater Fitnah.

References

Impact craters on Enceladus {{Saturn-crater-stub