Galileo Photographs Ganymede
Ganymede's surface is slowly being pulled apart.
This photo of Ganymede was
released earlier today by the Galileo team at NASA. The
Galileo Spacecraft arrived at
Jupiter
in December 1995. In late June, the spacecraft passed
within 10,000 kilometers of
Ganymede's icy surface, and took pictures
showing complex surface details for the first time. The
line-like features in this photo are sunlit ridges rising above
Ganymede's ice-plains.
The circular features are impact craters.
Ganymede
is the largest moon of
Jupiter and hence the largest of
the four Galilean satellites:
Io,
Europa,
Ganymede, and
Callisto.