North is to the top of the picture and the sun illuminates the surface from the left. In the right hand version the processing has been changed to bring out details in the shadowed regions that are illuminated by the bright hillsides. The brightness of some of the hillsides is so high that the picture elements 'spill over' down the columns of the picture. Fracturing Two highly fractured craters are visible in this high resolution image of Jupiter's moon, Ganymede. NASA's Galileo spacecraft imaged this region as it passed Ganymede during its second orbit through the Jovian system.
North is to the top of the picture and the sun illuminates the surface from the southeast.
Pervasive fracturing has occurred in this area that has completely disrupted these craters and destroyed their southern and western walls. Such intense fracturing has occurred over much of Ganymede's surface and has commonly destroyed older features. Tectonism Complex tectonism is evident in these images of Ganymede's surface. The solid state imaging camera on NASA's Galileo spacecraft imaged this region as it passed Ganymede during its second orbit through the Jovian system. The tectonism that created the structures in the bright terrain nearby has strongly affected the local dark terrain to form unusual structures such as the one shown here.