Nanshe Catena
A bright ray crater chain on Ganymede's Jupiter-facing hemisphere.
Nanshe Catena is a crater chain located on Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon. It stretches 103.8 kilometers in length and is roughly 50 kilometers wide, consisting of about seven overlapping ray craters arranged in a line. The chain is capsule-shaped, and its bright rays suggest it formed relatively recently in geological terms—likely within the last few hundred million years.
The feature is named for the Mesopotamian goddess of spring water and aquatic animals, Nanshe, daughter of the wisdom god Enki. After Enki helped bring order to the cosmos, Nanshe was assigned the duty of caring for the fishes of rivers and seas; she is also linked to dream interpretation and soothsaying. The name follows the International Astronomical Union’s rule that craters and crater chains on Ganymede be named after deities and heroes from ancient Middle Eastern mythologies, and it was approved in 1997.
Nanshe Catena lies at the eastern end of Phrygia Sulcus, a bright, grooved terrain, northeast of the dark ancient region Barnard Regio. Only two nearby craters have names: Diment to the north and Isimu to the southwest. It sits in the northwest corner of Ganymede’s Misharu quadrangle (designated Jg10). Because Ganymede is in synchronous rotation, one hemisphere always faces Jupiter; Nanshe Catena is on that hemisphere, meaning Jupiter would appear nearly directly overhead to an observer there at all times.
The chain was imaged in close-up only by Voyager 1 during its March 1979 flyby, at a medium resolution of 1,000 meters per pixel. The Galileo spacecraft photographed it only from great distances, such as during a September 1997 flyby, and no high-resolution Galileo images are available. In June 2021, Juno flew by Ganymede during its 34th perijove and captured high-resolution images of Nanshe Catena; it may also have imaged a new crater to the southeast. The European Space Agency’s Juice mission is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in July 2031 and enter a low orbit around Ganymede (500 kilometers altitude) in July 2034, which should provide the first high-resolution images of the bright catena.
Quick Facts
- Length
- 103.80 km
- Eponym
- Nanshe
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Nanshe Catena is a roughly capsule-shaped chain of about seven overlapping ray craters, stretching 103.8 km long and about 50 km wide. Its bright rays suggest it formed recently in geologic terms, likely within the past few hundred million years. The chain is named after Nanshe, a Mesopotamian goddess of spring water and aquatic animals, daughter of Enki, who was assigned to care for fishes and also associated with dream interpretation. The name was approved by the IAU in 1997, following the rule that Ganymede's craters and chains be named after deities and heroes from Ancient Middle Eastern mythologies.
Located at the eastern end of Phrygia Sulcus, a bright grooved terrain, Nanshe Catena lies northeast of the dark ancient region Barnard Regio. Only two named craters are nearby: Diment to the north and Isimu to the southwest. Because Ganymede is in synchronous rotation, Nanshe Catena sits on the Jupiter-facing hemisphere, meaning Jupiter would appear almost directly overhead at all times from that location.
Reader's Guide
Nanshe Catena was first imaged in close-up by Voyager 1 during its flyby of Ganymede in March 1979, at a medium resolution of 1,000 meters per pixel. The Galileo spacecraft later photographed it only from great distances, such as during a distant flyby in September 1997, and no high-resolution Galileo images are available. In June 2021, the Juno spacecraft flew by Ganymede during its 34th perijove and imaged Nanshe Catena at high resolution, and may have also imaged a new crater to the southeast. The European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) is expected to arrive at Jupiter in July 2031 and settle into a low orbit around Ganymede at 500 km altitude in July 2034, which will provide the first high-resolution images of the bright catena. The chain's bright rays and recent formation make it a key target for understanding impact processes on Ganymede, and its location on the Jupiter-facing hemisphere offers unique observational geometry.
Did You Know?
- Nanshe Catena is composed of around seven individual ray craters that closely overlap each other.
- It is located on the Jupiter-facing hemisphere of Ganymede, so Jupiter would always appear nearly overhead.
- The Juno spacecraft imaged Nanshe Catena at high resolution in June 2021.
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