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Ganymede: Highest Resolution Global Color View
Date: 5 Mar 1979
Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, is revealed in this natural color mosaic of images obtained by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft.
The surface displays numerous impact craters -- many with bright rays.
Other older impact craters are shown that have lost their rays through erosion. The bright swaths across the surface contain grooves and ridges that may be caused by faulting.
The images that comprise this view were acquired by Voyager 1 on 5 March 1979 at distances ranging from 272,000 km (169,000 miles) to 246,000 km (158,400 miles) from Ganymede. The smallest features visible are about 2.5 km (1.5 miles) across.
Some of the monochrome images that were used to construct this image appear in PIA02278, PIA02279, PIA02252 and
PIA02233.
Additional information about the Voyager mission is available online at: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov.
NOTE: This processed image is copyrighted. Contact Ted Stryk for usage inquiries.
What Scientists/Engineers Say About This Image:
"[The] Grooved terrain on Ganymede is fascinating to me. It is an analog for tectonic processes that occur on Earth known as rifting. This analog is just beautifully exposed out there on the surface of Ganymede -- a structural geologist's dream. It is really the grooved terrain of Ganymede that hooked me on the study of outer planet satellites back when I was an undergraduate student at Cornel."
--Robert Pappalardo: Senior Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Last Update: 21 Mar 2012 (AMB)
Credit: NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk
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