Discovery of mass anomalies on Ganymede.
We present the discovery of mass anomalies on Ganymede, Jupiter's third and largest Galilean satellite. This discovery is surprising for such a large icy satellite. We used the radio Doppler data generated with the Galileo spacecraft during its second encounter with Ganymede on 6 September 1996 to model the mass anomalies. Two surface mass anomalies, one a positive mass at high latitude and the other a negative mass at low latitude, can explain the data. There are no obvious geological features that can be identified with the anomalies.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA. john.d.anderson@jpl.nasa.gov
John D
JD
Anderson
Gerald
G
Schubert
Robert A
RA
Jacobson
Eunice L
EL
Lau
William B
WB
Moore
Jennifer L
JL
Palguta