Ganymede from Juno
Explanation:
What does the largest moon in the Solar System look like?
Jupiter's moon
Ganymede, larger than even
Mercury and
Pluto,
has an icy surface speckled with bright young craters overlying a mixture of
older, darker, more cratered terrain laced with
grooves and ridges.
The cause of the grooved terrain remains a
topic of research,
with a leading hypothesis relating it to shifting ice plates.
Ganymede is thought to
have an
ocean layer that contains more water than
Earth -- and
might contain life.
Like
Earth's Moon, Ganymede keeps the
same face towards
its central planet, in this case Jupiter.
The
featured image was captured last week by NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft as it
passed only about 1000 kilometers above the immense moon.
The close pass reduced Juno's orbital period around Jupiter from 53 days to 43 days.
Juno continues to study the
giant planet's high gravity,
unusual
magnetic field, and
complex
cloud structures.
Last week's solar eclipse:
Notable images submitted to APOD
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
