PS: LPSC: Why Ganymede and Callisto are so different

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

PS: LPSC: Why Ganymede and Callisto are so different

Post by bystander » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:04 pm

[url]LPSC: Why Ganymede and Callisto are so different[/url]
Planetary Society - 2010 Mar 01
The first talk I attended at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston was my one icy satellite talk for the day: Amy Barr, with an explanation for why Ganymede and Callisto look so different (note: links to LPSC talk titles will generally take you to PDF formatted conference abstracts). They are the two largest moons of Jupiter, similar in size (both more than 2,000 kilometers in diameter) and density (both nearly double the density of water). Yet Ganymede has a youthful surface, criscrossed by grooved terrain that has disrupted craters, while Callisto has an ancient surface where nothing but cratering and "mass wasting" processes seem to have been going on for eons.

Post Reply