Natural color view of Ganymede from the Galileo spacecraft during its first
encounter with the satellite. North is to the top of the picture and the sun
illuminates the surface from the right. The dark areas are the older, more
heavily cratered regions and the light areas are younger, tectonically
deformed regions. The brownish-gray color is due to mixtures of rocky
materials and ice. Bright spots are geologically recent impact craters and
their ejecta. The finest details that can be discerned in this picture are
about 13.4 kilometers across. The images which combine for this color image
were taken beginning at Universal Time 8:46:04 UT on June 26, 1996.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's
Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.