Ganymede: Bright-Dark terrain boundary | PIA02577 | ||
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The ancient, dark terrain of Nicholson Regio (left) shows many large impact craters, and zones of fractures oriented generally parallel to the boundary between the dark and bright regions of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. In contrast, the bright terrain of Harpagia Sulcus (right) is less cratered and relatively smooth. | ||
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Image
Credit: JPL,
DLR (German Aerospace Center) |
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The
ancient, dark terrain of Nicholson Regio (left) shows many large impact
craters, and zones of fractures oriented generally parallel to the boundary
between the dark and bright regions of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. In contrast,
the bright terrain of Harpagia Sulcus (right) is less cratered and relatively
smooth. The nature of the boundary between ancient, dark terrain and younger, bright terrain, the two principal terrain types on Ganymede, was explored by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on May 20, 2000. Subtle parallel ridges and grooves show that Harpagia Sulcus?s land has been smoothed out over the years by tectonic processes. |
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North is to the top of the picture. The Sun illuminates the surface from the left. The image, centered at 14 degrees latitude and 319 degrees longitude, covers an area approximately 213 by 97 km The resolution is 121m per picture element. The images were taken on 20 May 2000, at a range of 11,800 km. | |
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