HD Hubble Images Milky Way


Ganymede: Ganymede is both the largest moon of Jupiter, our Solar System's planetary behemoth, as well as the largest moon in our entire Solar system. Observations of Ganymede by the HST in 2015 suggested the existence of a subsurface saline ocean. This is because patterns in auroral belts and rocking of the magnetic field hinted at the presence of an ocean. It is estimated to be approximately 100 kilometers deep with a surface situated below a crust of 150 kilometers. Conventionalized images of the Man in the Moon seen in Western art usually display a simple "face" in the full Moon, or a human profile in the crescent Moon, that correspond to real topological features on the lunar surface. Ganymede is larger than Mercury, which is the innermost--and smallest--major planet in our Solar System. The surface area of Ganymede is more than half that of the land area of Earth, and it provides scientists with a wealth of data concerning a great variety of surface features.