Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day we feature a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

September 6, 1995

Callisto: Dark Smashed Iceball
Credit: NASA, Voyager

Explanation: Callisto is a dirty battered world, showing the most beaten surface of Jupiter's major moons. Made of a rocky core covered by fractured ice, Callisto's past collisions with large meteors are evident as large craters surrounded by concentric rings. The four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto were all discovered by Galileo and Marius in 1610 with early telescopes and are now known as the Galilean satellites. The NASA spacecraft Galileo is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter is December of 1995.

Tomorrow's picture: Distant Galaxies

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Astronomy Picture of the Day (TM) is created and copyrighted in 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell who are solely responsible for its content.

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