Ganymede Picture (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS) New Delhi : NASA s Juno spacecraft passed Jupiter s largest moon called Ganymede on June 7 and not missing the occasion it snapped the celestial body while it was half lit due to sunlight.
Juno snapped Ganymede from a distance of 1,038 kilometers, which is closest by any spacecraft till date.
In the released two pictures, Ganymede s crater can be seen and it appears just like earth s moon in different shade.
NASA explained that the current sunlit picture released have been captured using JunoCam with a green filter, the spacecraft s visible light imager. Once Juno relays home pictures it shot using the Red and Blue filters, NASA said imaging experts will be able to piece together a color portrait of the water-ice-encrusted moon.
Kenneth Chang, The New York Times
Published: 09 Jun 2021 11:20 AM BdST
Updated: 09 Jun 2021 11:21 AM BdST A photo provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS shows an image of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede obtained by the Juno spacecraft during its flyby of the icy moon on Monday, June 7, 2021. Juno completed a close flyby of Ganymede, Jupiter’s biggest moon, as it transitions into a new phase of its mission. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS via The New York Times)
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On Monday, the NASA spacecraft Juno passed within 645 miles of Ganymede, the largest of Jupiter’s 79 known moons and indeed the largest moon in the entire solar system. It was the first up-close examination of Ganymede since an earlier NASA probe, Galileo, passed by in December 2000.
A picture of Ganymede s sunlit side shot using JunoCam NASA said that the sunlit picture released on Tuesday was captured using JunoCam paired with a green filter, the spacecraft s visible light imager. Once Juno relays home pictures it shot using the Red and Blue filters, NASA said imaging experts will be able to piece together a color portrait of the water-ice-encrusted moon. The pictures have a resolution of approximately one kilometer per pixel.
Dark side
Close-up image of Ganymede shot using Stellar Reference unit Additionally, the low-light optimized Stellar Reference Unit camera used by Juno to stay on course provided one black-and-white image of the dark side of Ganymede (the side opposite to the Sun).
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On June 7th, NASA s Juno spacecraft zipped closer to Jupiter s largest moon than any other has done in more than two decades. Racing at almost 12 miles per second (19 km per second), Juno successfully snapped the first images of Ganymede s icy shell, which show the surface in great detail, with craters, dark and bright landscapes, and long structural features that could be linked to tectonic faults. 3 photos
The first two images were taken using the JunoCam visible-light imager onboard the spacecraft and its Stellar Reference Unit star navigation camera. JunoCam captured nearly an entire side of the water-ice-encrusted moon using its green filter, while the Stellar Reference Unit provided a black-and-white image of the moon s dark side illuminated by the faint light reflected off Jupiter.
NASA s Juno spacecraft flew closer to Ganymede, one of Jupiter s four Galilean moons, than any other in more than two decades, offering dramatic glimpses of the icy.