December 23, 1996
The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us, and yet here you are — a collection of atoms that somehow learned to think, to...
The Hills of Ganymede Credit:
Birthday · December 23, 1996
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APOD published December 23, 1996. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
This computer generated 3D close-up view of Jupiter's large moon Ganymede was created using image data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Simulating stereo vision by combining two recent images recorded from different angles, 3 dimensional information was reconstructed for a section of Ganymede's surface. The result shows the furrows, craters, and hills in the region appropriately known as "Galileo Regio" with a resolution of about 250 feet. Currently exploring the Jovian System, the Galileo spacecraft just completed a flyby of Europa. It is scheduled to return to Ganymede in April next year.