Split comets and the origin of crater chains on ganymede and callisto

ABSTRACT WHEN the Voyager 1 spacecraft flew through the jovian system in January 1979, it returned images of several prominent chains of impact craters on the surface of the moon Callisto

(Fig. 1). These impressively straight chains, or catenae, are composed of between 4 and 25 craters, and are up to 620 km long. They were initially thought to be secondary craters produced by

debris from a larger primary impact1, but detailed searches for source craters have been largely unsuccessful: a satisfactory explanation for the crater chains has yet to be found. Inspired

by the recent observations of comet Shoemaker–Levy 9, which split into a line of about 20 fragments as it swept past Jupiter2, we suggest that the impact of previous split comets might be

responsible for at least some of the catenae on Callisto. In support of this hypothesis, we find that nearly all of Callisto's crater chains are on the Jupiter-facing hemisphere, as are

an additional three catenae that we have found on Ganymede. We present a simple model of tidal breakup which both reproduces the range of observed chain lengths and indicates that the

parent comets responsible for the Callisto catenae were typically no more than about 10 km in diameter. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription

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ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS BREAKUP OF A LONG-PERIOD COMET AS THE

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Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, USA H. J. Melosh * Lunar and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston, Texas, 77058, USA P. Schenk Authors * H. J.

Melosh View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * P. Schenk View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Melosh, H., Schenk, P. Split comets and the origin of crater chains on Ganymede and Callisto. _Nature_

365, 731–733 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/365731a0 Download citation * Received: 05 August 1993 * Accepted: 30 September 1993 * Issue Date: 21 October 1993 * DOI:

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