Surface of Callisto



This is an image of Callisto in black and white.
Click on image for full size version (92K GIF)
Image from: NASA
The surface of Callisto is deeply pockmarked with craters. It looks to be perhaps the most severely cratered body in the solar system. There are also very large craters to be found there. The severity of the cratering indicates that the surface has not been altered by internal processes, or "resurfaced". This implies that Callisto, alone perhaps among the Galilean satellites, has not evolved and presents a surface preserved, pristine, from the beginning of the solar system. This fact renders Callisto very interesting to scientists because it may represent the "starting point" from which other icy bodies subsequently evoluted.

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Surface of Callisto



This is an image of Callisto in black and white.
Click on image for full size version (92K GIF)
Image from: NASA
The surface of Callisto is deeply pockmarked with craters. It looks to be perhaps the most severely cratered body in the solar system. There are also very large craters to be found there. The severity of the cratering indicates that the surface has not been changed by activities from within Callisto, or "resurfaced". This means that Callisto, alone perhaps among the Galilean satellites, has had no evolution and is preserved, pristine, from the beginning of the solar system. This fact renders Callisto very interesting to scientists, because it represents the "starting point" that other icy bodies may have evolved from.

Return to moons


Surface of Callisto



This is an image of Callisto in black and white.
Click on image for full size version (92K GIF)
Image from: NASA
The surface of Callisto is deeply marked with craters. Craters are the little white marks in the picture. It looks like it might be the most heavily cratered body in the whole solar system. And some of the craters are very large.

The number of craters means that in the history of Callisto, nothing has come along which caused the surface to change.

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Last modified April 28, 1997 by the Windows Team

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