Regional view of bright and dark terrain

	Regional view of bright and dark terrain
	by NASA
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	This view of the Nicholson Regio/Arbela Sulcus region on
	Jupiter's moon Ganymede, taken by NASA's Galileo
	spacecraft, shows the stark contrast between the smooth
	bright terrain and the surrounding highly fractured dark
	terrain. This observation was designed in part to
	distinguish between different models for how Arbela
	Sulcus and other groove lanes on Ganymede were formed.
	The volcanic model suggests that a relatively clean,
	water-rich lava filled a tectonic depression, then cooled
	to create a smooth surface. Tectonic models suggest that
	focused faulting and deformation of older dark terrain
	destroyed the pre-existing texture, which was brightened
	by exposure of underlying, clean ice. Analysis of these
	photos suggests a third and unexpected possibility:
	Arbela Sulcus may be similar to some bands on another of
	Jupiter's moons, Europa, formed by tectonic crustal
	spreading and renewal. North is to the upper left of the
	picture and the Sun illuminates the surface from the
	west. The image, centered at ?14 degrees latitude and 347
	degrees longitude, covers an area approximately 258 by
	116 kilometers (160 by 72 miles). The resolution is 133
	meters (436 feet)per picture element. The images were
	taken on May 20, 2000, at a range of 13,100 kilometers
	(8,140 miles). This image and other images and data
	received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission
	home page at <a
	href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo">htt
	p://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo</a>. Background information
	and educational context for the images can be found at <a

	href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo">http://www.jpl.n
	asa.gov/galileo/sepo</a>. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
	a division of the California Institute of Technology in
	Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office
	of Space Science, Washington, D.C. This image was
	produced by DLR (German Aerospace Center), Berlin, and
	Brown University, Providence, R.I., <a
	href="http://solars
	ystem.dlr.de/">http://solarsystem.dlr.de/</a> and<a
	href="
	http://www.planetary.brown.edu/">http://www.planetar
	y.brown.edu/</a>.

	Date Published: 2009-10-14 09:02:17
	Identifier: PIA02573
	Item Size: 569504
	Media Type: image

	# Topics
	What -- Moon
	What -- Ganymede
	What -- Galileo
	What -- Europa
	What -- Sun
	Where -- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
	Where -- California
	Where -- Washington
	Where -- Berlin
	Where -- Providence

	# Collections
	nasa
	planetaryphotojournalcollection

	# Uploaded by
	@bonniereal

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