In the past 20 years, Juno has flew over Jupiter’s largest moon Europa at a closer distance than other probes. NASA has confirmed that it received a clear glimpse of the surface of this icy planet from Juno on June 7. Including craters of different sizes, different topography that clearly distinguishes dark and bright, features related to fault structures, etc.
Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system. It is mainly composed of silicate rocks and ice bodies. It may have an iron-rich liquid core. Scientists speculate that there is a trapped 200 km below the surface of Ganymede. A saltwater ocean between two layers of ice.
On Europa’s surface, there are two main types of topography. The darker area occupies about one-third of the total surface area. It is densely packed with impact craters. The geological age is estimated to be 4 billion years. The brighter area covers a large number of grooves and ridges. The age is slightly smaller than the dark area.
Since Galileo explored the Jupiter system in the 1990s, no detector has visited Ganymede in close proximity for more than 20 years. Until now, NASA has confirmed that Juno successfully moved from the surface of Ganymede on June 7, Eastern time. It flew over at an altitude of only 1,038 kilometers, and successfully took a super clear picture of Ganymede’s surface.
Since NASA usually does not order the probes to send back data packets when they are busy collecting data, until today, NASA has released the first of the 5 photos expected to be taken by the Juno Camera (JunoCam, JCM); Advanced Stellar Compass ( The Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC) camera also provided a black and white photo of the dark side of Ganymede (the side that is not exposed to the sun).
This measurement data will help in-depth understanding of the composition, ionosphere, magnetosphere, ice crust and radiation environment of Ganymede, which is conducive to other Jupiter system flyby missions in the future, such as the Jupiter Ice Moon probe planned by the European Space Agency ( JUICE).
▲ A photo of the dark side of Ganymede taken by an Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC) camera.
(Image source: NASA)
