Fun thread: what is this a picture of?

[CalliArcale]

Yep! This is Ganymede, taken by the Galileo space craft, in an area called Nicholson Regio if one is an expert on interplanetary geography. <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /><br /><br />Fun facts about Ganymede:<br /><br />* It is the only moon of Jupiter which is named after a male mythical figure. By tradition, most of the moons are named for lovers of either Jupiter or Zeus. Ganymede was a young Trojan boy carried away by Zeus to become a cupbearer for the gods. What conclusions you wish to draw from that are entirely up to you. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />* Ganymede is the largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system. It is even bigger than Mercury. Science fiction writers have thus frequently placed human settlements on Ganymede, although the intensely radioactive environment around Jupiter would have to be addressed.<br /><br />* Ganymede was among the first four moons to be discovered around other planets, being simultaneously discovered by Galileo Galilei and German astronomer Simon Marius. Today, they are called the Galilean Satellites and Galileo is usually credited with the discovery, although we use the names Marius gave them. (Galileo had named them after some of his powerful Italian patrons, presumably trying to curry favor.)<br /><br />* Ganymede has a magnetic field<br /><br />* Ganymede is also differentiated; the Galileo spacecraft returned data suggesting a three-layer structure, possibly a molten iron and sulfur core, with a sillicate mantle and an icy crust. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Here's a full-disk image of a celestial body, to take a break from the closeups. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[gfpaladin]

Radar image?

 

[CalliArcale]

No, this is visible light. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[gfpaladin]

Enceladus?

 

[tamski]

Yep, I bet this is Enceladus. There aren't many moons that are similar to this...

 

[CalliArcale]

Guess what? It's not Enceladus! <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /><br /><br />It's one of the few moons that *is* similar to Enceladus. A fairly obscure hint is that it shares its name with an ancient ocean. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Tethys<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[nacnud]

That’s the only ancient ocean I know of <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[CalliArcale]

Yep! Tethys!<br /><br />Fun facts about Tethys:<br /><br />* Tethys is composed mostly of water ice, like many of Saturn's moons, but may not always have been frozen solid. The moon is dominated by the enormous Ithaca Chasma, a massive crack that may have formed when Tethys froze solid. It runs nearly three quarters of the way around Tethys.<br /><br />* Recent craters on Tethys are very clear and distinct. Older ones, thought to predate Ithaca Chasma, are much softer in appearance and may have been smoothed out as Tethys solidified and expanded. In particular, the massive Odysseus crater is curiously shallow, unlike other startlingly large impact craters in the Saturn system (such as Mimas' Hershel Crater or the ancient and currently unnamed crater dominating Cassini Regio on Iapetus).<br /><br />* Tethys has two Trojan companions: Telesto and Calypso. These tiny moons orbit in Tethys' L4 and L5 points, respectively. Such relationships seem unusually common in the Saturn system, perhaps a legacy of ancient collisions between very large objects. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

This one is very blurry, but I haven't doctored it in any way. Good luck! <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Clue-<br /><br />Its not earth but it has something very amazing in common with earth. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[odysseus145]

Cruithne? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Charon<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

Iapetus is another ancient ocean with a celestial counterpart<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[nacnud]

Pluto, both Earth and Pluto have huge moons?

 

[teije]

Pluto?

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Its not earth but it has something very amazing in common with earth.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Actually, it has very little in common with Earth, at least that we know about. I think you're barking up the wrong tree. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />It is not Cruithne, Charon, or Pluto. This one is a hard one. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />Okay, here's a bit of a hint. Discovered in 1949 by Kuiper, this object is almost a complete mystery. The picture above is by far the best ever taken of it -- and the only (as far as I know) to resolve it as anything other than a dot. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[nacnud]

Nereid ?<br /><br />

 

[teije]

yea I'm guessing nereid as well. But it took some googling to come to that guess. Is that cheating?

 

[CalliArcale]

Correctamundo! <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> I was slightly hoping some folks would think it was a KBO since Kuiper discovered it, but of course the date is a giveaway. This is Nereid, the third largest moon of Neptune.<br /><br />Fun facts about Nereid:<br /><br />* It has the most eccentric orbit of any moon, ranging from 1,353,600 to 9,623,700 kilometers. Scientists suspect it may be a captured asteroid (which would be of the Centaur class) or a Kuiper Belt Object.<br /><br />* Although Nereid was the second moon of Neptune to be discovered, Proteus (discovered in Voyager 2 images) is larger. Until Voyager 2 flew past Neptune, Triton and Nereid were the only Neptunian moons known.<br /><br />* Nereid has an albedo of .2, making it almost twice as shiny our own Moon and a lot brighter than any Neptunian moon other than Triton, but dark enough that it is probably not entirely ice; apart from that, practically nothing is known about the physical makeup of Nereid; even it's mass is only an estimate based on its size and albedo and some educated guesses about what it might be made of <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[nacnud]

I hope not <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> and even if it is I'm enjoying googleing around the solar system

 

[CalliArcale]

Googling is not cheating. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> Research is a perfectly valid way to come to an answer!<br /><br />Here's another full-disk picture to guess at. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[teije]

All right then....<br />Oberon

 

[imran10]

Ariel