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Updated: Aug 2, 2026

Simulation of the Planetary Interior Differentiation Processes in the Laboratory
Published on: November 16, 2013
Distribution of rock, metals, and ices in Callisto
J D Anderson1, G Schubert, R A Jacobson
1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109-8099, USA.
Abstract:
Radio Doppler data from a single encounter (C3) of the Galileo spacecraft with Callisto, the outermost Galilean moon of Jupiter, indicated that Callisto was probably undifferentiated. Now, similar data from a second encounter (C9) corroborate this conclusion, but more accurate data from a third encounter (C10) indicate that the rock and ice within Callisto have partially, but not completely, separated. Callisto may be differentiated into a rock-metal core less than 25 percent of Callisto's radius, an outer layer of clean ice less than 350 km thick, and a middle layer of mixed rock and ice. Models in which ice and rock are mixed all the way to the center of Callisto are also consistent with the data.
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