Japanese scientists from Kobe University have discovered that in the distant past a giant asteroid hit Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons and the largest planetary satellite in the solar system. The impact shifted the celestial body’s rotation axis. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Scientific Reports (SciRep).
Calculations have shown that a massive impact occurred about 4 billion years ago. The asteroid that hit Ganymede was about 300 kilometers in diameter, 20 times larger than the space rock that ended the age of dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago.
The team concluded that the asteroid impact left a temporary crater on Ganymede measuring 1,400 to 1,600 kilometers in diameter.
“I want to understand the origin and evolution of Ganymede and other moons of Jupiter. The giant impact must have had a significant impact on the early evolution of Ganymede, but the thermal and structural effects of the impact on Ganymede’s interior have never been investigated. I believe that it will be possible to conduct more research involving the internal evolution of icy moons in the future,” explained planetary scientist Naoyuki Hirata, author of the study.
Earlier scientists crawler 200 meteorites from Mars fell to Earth as a result of large asteroids hitting the surface of Mars.
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Source: Gazeta
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