Galileo Regio
 The large dark oval region in the upper right is Galileo Regio | |
| Feature type | Regio |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 47°00′N 129°36′W / 47.0°N 129.6°W |
| Diameter | 3,200 km |
| Eponym | Galileo Galilei |
Galileo Regio is a large, dark surface feature on Jupiter's moon Ganymede.[1]
It is a region of ancient dark material that has been broken apart by tectonism and is now surrounded by younger, brighter material (such as that of Uruk Sulcus) that has been upwelling from Ganymede's interior. It is thought to be some 4 billion years old and is heavily cratered and palimpsested, but also has a unique distribution of furrows and smooth terrain that has been the subject of conflicting speculation regarding cause or origin. The distribution of smooth terrain on Galileo Regio suggests that the ancient crust of Ganymede was relatively thin in the equatorial region and thickened poleward in this area. The age relationships, morphology, and geometry of the furrow systems do not favor an origin by impact or tidal stressing. A possible, but speculative, origin is crustal uplift caused by a plume-like convection cell in a fluid mantle underlying a thin crust. Stratigraphic and morphologic relationships among furrows and crater palimpsests suggest that palimpsest morphology is largely the result of impact into a rheologically weak crust rather than viscous relaxation.
The regio is bounded on the southwest by Uruk Sulcus, which lies between it and Marius Regio. Within Galileo Regio itself lies the palimpsest Memphis Facula, a relic of an impact crater that has been flattened in a manner characteristic of some of the Solar System bodies with icy crusts.
A study from 2020 by Hirata, Suetsugu and Ohtsuki suggests that Ganymede probably was hit by a massive asteroid 4 billion years ago; an impact so violent that may have shifted the moon's axis. The study came to this conclusion analysing images of the furrows system in the satellite's surface. [2] Galileo Regio is one of the system's analyzed.
References
- ^ "Galileo Regio". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Science Center. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
- ^ "'Naoyuki Hirata, Ryo Suetsugu, Keiji Ohtsuki, A global system of furrows on Ganymede indicative of their creation in a single impact event, Icarus, Volume 352, 2020, 113941,ISSN 0019-1035'".
- Harland, D. M.; Jupiter Odyssey, Springer Praxis (2000), p. 141
- Casacchia, R., and R. G. Strom (1984), Geologic evolution of Galileo Regio, Ganymede, J. Geophys. Res., 89(S02), B419–B428, doi:10.1029/JB089iS02p0B419.
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