One thing was certain: There were no impact craters on Io. Unless the satellites of Jupiter had somehow been shielded from the meteoric impacts that cratered objects such as the Moon, Mars, and Mercury, the absence of craters must indicate the presence of erosion or of internal processes that destroy or cover up craters. Io did not look like a dead planet. Imaging Team member Hal Masursky, looking at the “pizza” picture, estimated that the surface of Io must be no more than 100 million years old—that is, some agent must have erased impact craters during the last 100 million years. This interpretation depended on how often cratering impacts occur on Io. No one could be sure that there had been any interplanetary debris in the Jovian system to impact the surfaces of the satellites. Perhaps none of them would be cratered. The forthcoming flybys of Ganymede and Callisto would soon provide this information.
[Illustration: The giant volcanic feature Pele, about 1000 kilometers across, mystified Voyager scientists when this picture of Io was taken on March 5 from a distance of about 400 000 kilometers. The brilliant colors, the strange shapes of the surface deposits, and the absence of impact craters all testified that Io was unlike any world previously encountered in the exploration of the solar system. [P-21226C]]
[Illustration: As Voyager 1 approached Io, the images of the surface became more and more spectacular. On the morning of March 5, at a range of 130 000 kilometers, this picture was taken centered near longitude 320° and latitude 10°S. The width of the picture is about 1000 kilometers (the distance from the Mexican border to the northern edge of California). There are no impact craters, signifying a geologically young surface, and the dark center with radiating red flows indicates recent volcanic activity of some sort. [P-21277C]]
The close flyby of Ganymede took place at 6:53 p.m., at a range of 115 000 kilometers. During the preceding four hours, photos revealed a surface covered with impact craters. Watching these photos and supplying commentary for the television listeners, David Morrison remarked, “While I’m delighted to see craters, it’s just the opposite of what I would have expected. I was telling everyone a few days ago that I thought Io would have plenty of craters and that Ganymede, because of the ice surface, simply would not be able to hold large craters over geological time. So this is fascinating and this is confusing—both what has happened on Io to erase the craters and why Ganymede’s surface is strong enough to preserve them.”