Collection:
NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection Collection NASA Planetary Photo Journal Collection Collection
Title:
So few Small Craters on Callisto Title So few Small Craters on Callisto Title
Original Caption Released with Image:
This moderately high resolution view of Jupiter's icy moon, Callisto, shows two, probably related, phenomena that were quite surprising to planetary scientists. First, a dark, mobile blanket of material covers Callisto's surface. Movement of this material occurs on slopes, as seen here on some crater walls. Second, while Callisto has a significant number of large craters, it lacks the related number of small craters which are seen in the crater size distributions of other similar bodies in our solar system. Small craters near slopes would become filled in by the downward movement of the dark material, but what erases the other small craters? One alternative is that the population of potential impactors around Jupiter has fewer small objects than previously expected. North is to the top of the picture. The image, centered at 17.5 degrees north latitude and 142.1 degrees west longitude, covers an area approximately 74 kilometers (46 miles) by 75 kilometers (47 miles). The resolution is about 87 meters (285 feet) per picture element. The image was taken on September 17th, 1997 at a range of 8600 kilometers (5330 miles) by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft during its tenth orbit of Jupiter. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo Original_Caption_Rel eased_with_Image This moderately high resolution view of Jupiter's icy moon, Callisto, shows two, probably related, phenomena that were quite surprising to planetary scientists. First, a dark, mobile blanket of material covers Callisto's surface. Movement of this material occurs on slopes, as seen here on some crater walls. Second, while Callisto has a significant number of large craters, it lacks the related number of small craters which are seen in the crater size distributions of other similar bodies in our solar system. Small craters near slopes would become filled in by the downward movement of the dark material, but what erases the other small craters? One alternative is that the population of potential impactors around Jupiter has fewer small objects than previously expected. North is to the top of the picture. The image, centered at 17.5 degrees north latitude and 142.1 degrees west longitude, covers an area approximately 74 kilometers (46 miles) by 75 kilometers (47 miles). The resolution is about 87 meters (285 feet) per picture element. The image was taken on September 17th, 1997 at a range of 8600 kilometers (5330 miles) by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft during its tenth orbit of Jupiter. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo Original Caption Released with Image
Addition Date:
1998-10-13 Addition_Date 1998-10-13 Addition Date
Produced By:
JPL Produced_By JPL Produced By
Mission:
Galileo Mission Galileo Mission
Spacecraft:
Galileo Orbiter Spacecraft Galileo Orbiter Spacecraft
Target Name:
Callisto Target_Name Callisto Target Name
Is a satellite of:
Jupiter Is_a_satellite_of Jupiter Is a satellite of
Instrument:
Solid-State Imaging Instrument Solid-State Imaging Instrument
Product Size:
800 samples x 799 lines Product_Size 800 samples x 799 lines Product Size
Primary Data Set:
Galileo EDRs Primary_Data_Set Galileo EDRs Primary Data Set
Producer ID:
MRPS93539 Producer_ID MRPS93539 Producer ID
facet_what:
Crater facet_what Crater facet_what
facet_what:
Moon facet_what Moon facet_what
facet_what:
Jupiter facet_what Jupiter facet_what
facet_what:
Galileo facet_what Galileo facet_what
facet_what:
Galileo Orbiter facet_what Galileo Orbiter facet_what
facet_what:
Solid-State Imaging facet_what Solid-State Imaging facet_what
facet_what:
Callisto facet_what Callisto facet_what
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory facet_where Jet Propulsion Laboratory facet_where
facet_where:
Jupiter facet_where Jupiter facet_where
facet_where:
Callisto facet_where Callisto facet_where
facet_where:
Washington facet_where Washington facet_where
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) facet_where Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) facet_where
facet_when:
8600 facet_when 8600 facet_when
facet_when:
September 17th, 1997 facet_when September 17th, 1997 facet_when
facet_when_year:
1997 facet_when_year 1997 facet_when_year
facet_when_year:
8600 facet_when_year 8600 facet_when_year
Image #:
PIA01631 Image_# PIA01631 Image #
UID:
SPD-PHOTJ-PIA01631 UID SPD-PHOTJ-PIA01631 UID
orignial url:
http://photojournal… orignial_url http://photojournal… orignial url

So few Small Craters on Callisto

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So few Small Craters on Callisto