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| Feature type | Crater |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 1°00′N152°54′W / 1.0°N 152.9°W |
| Diameter | 14.2 kilometres (8.8 mi) |
| Eponym | Khensu |
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 Uruk Sulcus.
Khensu is named after the Egyptian god Khensu (also known as Khonsu), the youthful god of the Moon, the lunar phases, and travelers. [2] 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, and it explains 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. [3]
The IAU ruled that craters and features on Ganymede should be named after deities, heroes or places from Ancient Middle Eastern mythologies, including Egyptian mythology. [4]
Another crater on Ganymede called Khonsu shares the same deity from whom Khensu derives its name (Khonsu being an alternative transliteration of Khensu). [5]
Khensu is a relatively small crater located entirely within the bright and young surface feature called Uruk Sulcus. [6] It is only 14.2 kilometres (8.8 mi) across [7] and it is a part of the Uruk quadrangle (designated Jg8) of Ganymede. [8]
Little information is know about Khensu. There is no definitely explanation as is why the crater interior is very dark. The dark component may be residual material from the impactor that formed the crater. Another possibility is that the impactor may have punched through the bright surface to reveal a dark layer beneath. [9] Because of its characteristic, Khensu has been classified as a "dark-ray crater" by researchers. [10]
Other craters identified as dark-ray craters include Kittu and Nergal.
The depth of the crater is also not definitely known.
A few kilometers directly to the east of Khensu lies the crater El.
As of 2026, a total of two spacecraft have photographed Khensu and its neighboring craters: Voyager 2 and Galileo
The first spacecraft to explore and photograph Khensus was Voyager 2, which flew by Ganymede in July 1979. It revealed Khensu’s mysterious, dark nature.
The next and last spacecraft to visit Khensu was Galileo, which flew above Khensu in September 1996. The probe was able to resolve details as small as 111 metres (364 ft) in its images.
The next spacecraft dedicated to studying Ganymede is the European Space Agency's (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft. The probe will arrive at Jupiter in July 2031, [11] 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 500 kilometres (310 mi). [12] Juiceis expected to provide clearer images of Khensu, surpassing even the quality of Galileo’s.
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