A portion of the central zone of the large impact structure Valhalla on
Jupiter's moon Callisto was imaged by the Galileo spacecraft on November
4, 1996. The area shown here is centered at 16 degrees north, 55
degrees west and is about seven miles (11 kilometers) across. This is
the highest resolution picture ever taken of Callisto and shows features
as small as 200 feet (60 meters) across. The formation of Valhalla occurred
early in Callisto's history; however, the central zone shown here is probably
younger than Valhalla's surrounding structure. This newly acquired picture
shows some small craters, although they have been softened or modified
by downslope movement of debris, revealing bright ice-rich surfaces. In
contrast to other areas on Callisto, most of the very smallest craters appear
to have been completely obliterated.
This image was taken by the solid state imaging television camera
onboard the Galileo spacecraft during its third orbit around Jupiter, at a
distance of 757 miles (1,219 kilometers).
The Galileo mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's
Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on
the Galileo mission home page on the World Wide Web at
http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/. Background information and educational
context for the images can be found at http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo/.
