Our Solar System: Who is the largest moon in our planetary system? That is the Ganymede moon of Jupiter. It is much larger than any other planet in our solar system. That is, it is larger than Mercury. Scientists have uncovered a secret that has so far been hidden by the largest moon in our solar system. Let us know what it is.
Scientists were able to uncover the secrets of the Ganymede moon after a careful study of data from two sources. The first source is the Voyager mission. The first Voyager spacecraft passed over Jupiter’s system in 1979, and scientists were able to look into Jupiter’s system for the first time. The Galileo probe mission is another source that scientists have used as a source to learn about the Ganymede moon. It studied Jupiter and Jupiter’s moons for 8 years.
Comparing the data from these, scientists found that Ganymede had a large collision with the moon. Upon further study of this conflict, they found that they had an underestimation of this conflict. This is because scientists currently believe that the largest collision crater in the Solar System is on the moon Ganymede.
It is so large that the collision scar is located on one side of the Ganymede Moon, which is even larger than Mercury.
For such a large collision scar to occur, a serious collision must occur. It is no secret that the Ganymede moon had a huge impact on that serious collision. Such a large collision scar can be caused by a part of an asteroid with a diameter of at least 150 km. The shock caused by the collision caused a large amount of broken debris to accumulate and form rings around the crater. And this moon must have cracked.
Scientists realized the seriousness of the collision when they examined the Ganymede moon’s oldest dark ground side, located on the opposite side of the conflict zone. It turned out that due to the severity of the collision, the opposite dark ground area was rippled and cracked. It also has deep basins. Thousands of years have passed since this happened, but the basin has not yet been erased. And if this assumption is correct, scientists say this is the largest collision scar we have ever seen in the Solar System. Its radius is estimated to be about seven thousand eight hundred kilometers. That is, the diameter of the scar is more than twice the length of the Mississippi River.
So far we have thought that Jupiter has the biggest collision scar on its own moon, Calisto. Known as Walhalla, it has a radius of 1800 km. Compared to that, Ganymede shows how big the collision scar is. In the future, scientists will find out how the giant waves on Ganymede Moon formed.
The European Space Agency is developing a new spacecraft. The spacecraft is called the Jupiter icy moons explorer. In June 2022, it is scheduled to orbit Jupiter’s moons. Its main targets are the two moons Ganymede and Calisto. The study of the moons is scheduled for three years from 2029.
Will that latest spacecraft be able to reveal the secrets of the Ganymede moon? Leave us your comment below.