View of a chain of craters named Enki Catena on Jupiter's moon,
Ganymede. This chain of 13 craters probably formed by a comet which was
pulled into pieces by Jupiter's gravity as it passed too close to the
planet. Soon after this breakup, the 13 fragments crashed onto Ganymede
in rapid succession. The Enki craters formed across the sharp boundary
between areas of bright terrain and dark terrain, delimited by a thin
trough running diagonally across the center of this image.
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Enki Catena Crater Chain On Ganymede
Galileo Image
April 5, 1997
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The ejecta
deposit surrounding the craters appears very bright on the bright
terrain. Even though all the craters formed nearly simultaneously, it
is difficult to discern any ejecta deposit on the dark terrain. This
may be because the impacts excavated and mixed dark material into the
ejecta and the resulting mix is not apparent against the dark
background.
North is to the bottom of the picture and the sun illuminates the
surface from the left. The image, centered at 39 degrees latitude and
13 degrees longitude, covers an area approximately 214 by 217
kilometers. The resolution is 545 meters per picture element. The image
was taken on April 5, 1997 at 6 hours, 12 minutes, 22 seconds Universal
Time at a range of 27282 kilometers by the Solid State Imaging (SSI)
system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.
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