Khensu is an impact crater on Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter. It is a dark-floored crater with a bright ejecta blanket located in the grooved terrain region called Uruk Sulcus.
Naming
Khensu is named after the Egyptian god Khensu (also known as Khonsu), the youthful god of the Moon, the lunar phases, and travelers. According to Egyptian mythology during the New Kingdom of Egypt, he is the son of the supreme Egyptian god Amun-Ra and his wife Mut whose worship was centered in Thebes, the capital of Ancient Egypt.
According to one myth, he gambled with another moon god named Thoth and lost, which caused Khensu to lose a significant portion of his moonlight, thus explaining why the Moon is undergoing phases why and is not as bright as the Sun anymore. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved the name for Khensu in 1999.
The IAU ruled that craters on Ganymede like Khensu should be named after deities, heroes or places from Ancient Middle Eastern mythologies, including Egyptian mythology. The IAU approved the named for Khensu in 1997.
Location
Khensu is a relatively small crater located entirely within the bright and young surface feature called Uruk Sulcus. It is only across according to NASA,
Khensu lies on the hemisphere of Ganymede that permanently faces away from Jupiter. This situation is a result of the moon's synchronous rotation around its parent planet. As a consequence, an observer standing at Khensu would never see Jupiter in the sky.
Morphology and Formation
Little information is known about Khensu. There is no definitely explanation as to why the crater's interior is very dark. The dark component may be residual dark material from the impactor that formed the crater. According to the book "Atlas of the Galilean Satellites" by Paul Schenk, the redness and darkness of Khensu are consistent with contamination of the ejecta by an unusual impactor.
Because of its characteristic, Khensu has been classified as a "dark-floored" or "dark halo" crater by researchers. and after spending approximately three and a half years orbiting Jupiter and performing multiple flybys of Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, Juice will settle into a low polar orbit around Ganymede at a distance of just . Juiceis expected to provide clearer images of Khensu, surpassing even the quality of Galileo's.
See also
- List of craters on Ganymede
- Meteor