The figure shown to the right is a Galileo Spacecraft image of the third Galilean moon, Ganymede (Ref), which has the distinction of being the largest moon in the Solar System. Its diameter is 5270 km, much larger than our own Moon (3476 kilometers). This moon is also largely covered by a frozen water ocean. Portions of its surface look young geologically and portions look old. It has large grooves in places, the crust is broken into fragments, and there is evidence for past plate tectonic activity. This represents the first conclusive evidence of plate tectonics in the Solar System beyond the Earth.
Tectonic features on the surface of Ganymede | The Galileo Regio region on Ganymede |
The right figure is a mosaic of four Galileo images of
the Galileo Regio region on Ganymede
overlayed on the data obtained by the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
These
Galileo images show fine details of the dark terrain that makes up about half
of the surface.
Ancient impact craters
indicate the great age
of the terrain, dating back several billion years
(more info).
In the left image below, new terrain overlays older terrain, which overlays still older terrain on the surface of Ganymede.
New and old terrain | The structure of Ganymede |
The images making up this mosaic were obtained by
NASA's Galileo spacecraft
when it flew past Jupiter's moon Ganymede for
the second time on
September 6, 1996
(Ref).