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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

🌌 NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

A Big Cliff on Jupiter's Callisto Credit:

Date: 1997-02-18

A Big Cliff on Jupiter's Callisto
Credit:

View HD Image

Explanation:

Callisto's surface
is not without fault. In fact, an explorer crossing the surface
of this large moon of Jupiter
would need climbing equipment to pass this large, recently discovered
fault. The above picture
was released last week and was taken in November 1996 by the robot spacecraft Galileo
currently orbiting Jupiter.
As the Sun illuminates Callisto's
surface from the left, the unusual cliff or scarp
stands out by the shadow it casts to the right. This cliff and
others were probably formed when a large object collided with
Callisto
early in its history. Of the many visible craters
in the above photograph, the smallest visible is about a football
field across, while the largest is more than a kilometer.