Callisto

Source: NASA

Callisto, oh my stars.  Callisto, the tail end of the Galilean Moons.  I have to admit, upon first glance at all four, Callisto was my favorite because it’s straight dazzling. 

It looks like it is home to many ports that could lead to somewhere else (narnia moon..?).  But up close? It resembles the aftermath of a war zone. Its brownish color is entirely littered with bright impact spots.  So, to give you the low down on this alien moon: It is the THIRD largest moon in the solar system, and second in line in this particular system (almost the size of Mercury?!).  It has the lowest density of its fellow satellites, which is only twice that of water ice. Here’s where it gets real: Callisto is the most heavily cratered object in our solar system.  Did you get that? This moon has undergone a serious beating in its 4 billion-ish year lifetime.  It is the oldest landscape in our whole dang solar system.  Pick up your jaw, there’s more.  Its surface is the darkest of its fellow Galilean buds, but it is twice as bright as our own moon.  Why? Water Ice. Reflectivity.  What’s crazy is that Callisto, this dead alien-like moon, is one of the key components in what led to the defiance + rejection of the geocentric model (everything orbits the earth, rather than the sun).  The prominent feature of this strange beauty is the Valhalla Crater, the largest multi-ring impact crater in the entire SS!!! Crazy.  The one thing that kept coming full circle for me was “WOW, this body is so stunning at a distance.  You get up real close, and you see its scars, its battle wounds, and its struggle to even muster up a bit of energy.” Sound familiar? I view the cosmos as a tool given to us to help understand God’s transcendent purpose for us. It is so astonishing to learn about these celestial bodies orbiting other celestial bodies, millions and millions of miles away, that have such a humanness to them. Who would have thought mankind can resonate with a rock? Just me? Okay, I’ll take it.