06.25.26
Two Views of Ganymede
NASA posts two close-up views of Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system, taken 25 years apart!
30 years ago, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft performed humanity’s first-ever flyby of Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede—revealing that it had a magnetic field. Nearly 25 years later, in June 2021, Juno made the next closest approach to the surface of this fascinating moon, detecting salts and organic compounds in its icy crust.
Side-by-side images of Ganymede:
On the left -
This natural color view of Ganymede was taken from the Galileo spacecraft during its first encounter with the satellite. The dark areas are the older, more heavily cratered regions and the light areas are younger, tectonically deformed regions. The brownish-gray color is due to mixtures of rocky materials and ice. Bright spots are geologically recent impact craters and their ejecta. The finest details that can be discerned in this picture are about 8 miles (13.4 kilometers) across.
- Credit: NASA/JPL
On the right -
An approximately true color/contrast mosaic of Ganymede images pj34_01 and pj34_02. The viewing geometry for image pj34_02 was used for the mosaic. The color is mainly based on Ganymede's global visible light spectrum but it is somewhat subjective and approximate.
- Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Björn Jónsson
On the left -
This natural color view of Ganymede was taken from the Galileo spacecraft during its first encounter with the satellite. The dark areas are the older, more heavily cratered regions and the light areas are younger, tectonically deformed regions. The brownish-gray color is due to mixtures of rocky materials and ice. Bright spots are geologically recent impact craters and their ejecta. The finest details that can be discerned in this picture are about 8 miles (13.4 kilometers) across.
- Credit: NASA/JPL
On the right -
An approximately true color/contrast mosaic of Ganymede images pj34_01 and pj34_02. The viewing geometry for image pj34_02 was used for the mosaic. The color is mainly based on Ganymede's global visible light spectrum but it is somewhat subjective and approximate.
- Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Björn Jónsson