Publication Date:
2011-08-18
Description:
Voyager spacecraft imagery of the Galilean satellites in 1979 revealed Callisto and portions of Ganymede to be densely cratered, but nonetheless deficient in craters larger than 30 km relative to the cratered highlands of the Moon, Mars, and Mercury. This relative deficiency of large craters could have been due to the complete obliteration of large craters through viscous relaxation in the icy surfaces of Ganymede and Callisto at a time when their surfaces were presumably warmer and more mobile or the deficiency could have stemmed from a relative depletion of large impacting bodies in the Jupiter system, compared with the terrestial planets. To test which alternative is correct, and, specifically, to see whether Callisto was subjected to a lunar-like bombardment, two areas on the heavily cratered lunar farside were compared with an area on Callisto. It was concluded that the Moon and Callisto must have bombarded by two different populations and though viscous relaxation could have modified, or even completely obliterated, craters on Callisto's surface, it could not hve been solely responsible for the observed deficiency of large craters on Callisto relative to the moon.
Keywords:
LUNAR AND PLANETARY EXPLORATION
Type:
NASA, Washington Advan. in Planetary Geol.; p 160-166
Format:
text
