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Ganymede
- Ancient Impact Craters in Galileo Regio
The
ancient impact craters shown in this image of Jupiter's moon Ganymede
are in an area called Galileo Regio. It was taken from NASA's Galileo
spacecraft and the craters testify to the great age of the terrain,
dating back several billion years. The dark and bright lines running
from lower right to upper left and from top to bottom are deep furrows
in the ancient crust of dirty water ice. The origin of the dark
material is unknown, but it may be accumulated dark fragments from
many meteorites that hit Ganymede. The area shown is about 30 kilometers
(19 miles) across. The image was taken June 27, 1996, at a range
of 7,563 kilometers (4,700 miles). picture of this asteroid would
appear mostly gray.
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