Researchers have put Jupiter's seventh moon Ganymede over 400 years after Galileo Galilei discovered it.
The moon is the largest in our solar system, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory news release reported. Researchers created the first "global geologic map" of the moon using flyby images from NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft and the Galileo orbiter.
"This map illustrates the incredible variety of geological features on Ganymede and helps to make order from the apparent chaos of its complex surface," Robert Pappalardo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. said in the news release."This map is helping planetary scientists to decipher the evolution of this icy world and will aid in upcoming spacecraft observations."
European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission is scheduled to orbit Ganymede in the year 2032.
Since 1610 researchers have been observing Jupiter's seventh moon. It is believed to be an icy object characterized by "dark, very old, highly cratered regions, and the lighter, somewhat younger (but still very old) regions marked with an extensive array of grooves and ridges," the news release reported.
The moon is believed to have gone through a phase of impact cratering followed by tectonic upheaval. It is now believed to be in a state of geologic activity decline.
"The highly detailed, colorful map confirmed a number of outstanding scientific hypotheses regarding Ganymede's geologic history, and also disproved others," Baerbel Lucchitta, scientist emeritus at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., said in the news release. "For example, the more detailed Galileo images showed that cryovolcanism, or the creation of volcanoes that erupt water and ice, is very rare on Ganymede."
The map will allow researchers to compare the features Ganymede with other icy moons.
"The surface of Ganymede is more than half as large as all the land area on Earth, so there is a wide diversity of locations to choose from," Collins said. "Ganymede also shows features that are ancient alongside much more recently formed features, adding historical diversity in addition to geographic diversity."
