The moon Ganymede seen by SPHERE

This image shows Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede captured in February 2015 in the infrared using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The different coloured regions provide clues to the composition and history of the moon. The bright regions, that consist mainly of water in the form of ice with hints of various salts, are believed to have formed more recently than the older darker patches, whose composition still remains a mystery.

For more information about the science behind this image check this Picture of the Week.