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Ganymede A collection of pictures of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, taken by space probes.

Ganymede is the largest moon in the entire Solar System. Ganymede is larger than the planet Mercury and, due to a metallic core, it is the only moon in the Solar System known to have a magnetic field. Being the largest of the Galilean moons, Ganymede was the first object discovered to be orbiting a planet other than Earth. Here are our favorite pictures of Ganymede. Like our other space galleries, the pictures have not been selected because of their scientific significance but because of their esthetic value and sometimes because of their historical importance. The picture to the left was taken by the Galileo space probe on March 29, 1998 at a range of 918,000 kilometers (570,000 miles). / Source: NASA/JPL

Ganymede was discovered on January 7, 1610 by Galileo Galilei. The Galilean moons were the first discoveries of moons in the solar system other than Earth's moon. They also were the first objects discovered using a telescope. For the next 350 years, due to the limited resolution of telescopes, Ganymede and the other Galilean moons remained nothing more than light spec in a telescope. The first somewhat closeup picture of Ganymede was taken by Pioneer 10 on December 3, 1973. The image was taken from a distance of 446,250 km (227,000 mi); close enough to determine some physical characteristics on its surface. The first real closeup pictures, revealing surface features were taken by the Voyager space probes.

First image of Ganymede Source: Wikipedia

Ganymede and Jupiter (Mosaic) Voyager 2, July 8, 1979, 430,000 km distance Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Ganymede from 180,000 km Voyager 1, March 5, 1979 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Ganymede from 6 million km Voyager 2, July 2, 1979 Source: NASA

NASA's Galileo probe entered Jupiter's orbit on December 8, 1995 and remained in orbit until September 21, 2003. Ganymede was targeted for close flybys during the probe's first two orbits. On September 6, 1996, Galileo passed the largest Galilean Moon at a distance of 260 kilometers (161 miles).

Artist's concept of Galileo passing Ganymede Source: Wikimedia & earthsky.org

Ganymede as seen from Galileo Source: NASA / earthsky.org

The following images were taken during diffeent flybys. The first picture of the Nicholson Regio is highest resolution view ever obtained of Ganymede's dark terrain.

Impact crater in Nicholson Regio May 20, 2000 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Kittu Crater from 14,252 km April 5, 1997 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Neith Crater from 15,500 km April 5, 1997 Source: NASA / Planetary Society

Arbela Sulcus (center) and Nicholson Regio (right) illustrating geologically different sharply differentiated areas on Ganymede. Mosaic created from images taken on May 20, 2000, at a range of 3,350 km (2,082 mi); Source: NASA/JPL/Brown University Among the most impressive features on Callisto and Ganymede are catenae, crater chains formed by the impact of a body that was broken up by the tidal forces of the planet into a string of smaller objects. The first time, such an impact was observed was the breakup of comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 and its subsequent impact on Jupiter in May 1994. There are three confirmed primary catenae on Ganymede, evidence of Jupiter's gravity and its strong tidal forces.

Enki Catena from 27,282 km May April 5, 1997 Source: NASA / JPL

Perrine Regio from 70,000 km December 28, 2000 Source: NASA / Planetary Society Enki Catena is in the lower right of the picture

Craters Gula (top) and Achelous (bottom) from 17,531 km; April 5, 1997 Source: NASA/JPL/Brown University

The Planetary Society and the JPL Photo Journal host large collections of images taken by Galileo. Aside from the Pioneer and Voyager probes and the two satellites Galileo and Juno, the only spacecraft that came somewhat close to Ganymede was New Horizons, which passed Jupiter on Februay 28, 2007 in a gravity assist maneuver. One day before closest approach to Jupiter, on Februay 27, 2007, New Horizon's LORRI camera, developed for very dim light, took a picture of Ganymede from a range of 3.5 million kilometers (2.2 million miles).

Source: NASA

Galileo also managed to take pictures of some of Jupiter's smaller moons.

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