Nicholson Regio and Arbela Sulcus, Ganymede

Filed under pretty pictures, amateur image processing, Jupiter's moons, Ganymede, Galileo

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Nicholson Regio and Arbela Sulcus, Ganymede

This Galileo SSI mosaic covers the dark terrain of Nicholson Regio on Jupiter's moon, Ganymede. Near the center of the image is a crater that has been torn apart by tectonic forces. A lane of ridges and grooves (probably extensional fault blocks) cuts through the crater and distorts its originally circular shape. The pair of oblong craters to the right was formed by the impact of a gravitationally bound pair of asteroids or a split comet. The oblong shapes of the craters suggest that the impactors struck the surface at a shallow angle.

NASA / JPL / OWW

North is to the top of the picture and the sun illuminates the surface from the right. The image, centered ~14°S, 352°W, has a resolution of 180 meters per pixel and was taken on April 5, 1997. The mosaic was created by unmannedspaceflight.com user OWW.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder. Original image data dated on or about April 5, 1997