Scientists have discovered what they believe may be the largest impact crater in the entire solar system, with scars covering a vast portion of Jupiter's biggest moon, Ganymede.

Previous researchers had pointed to these furrows as evidence of a large impact powerful enough to leave scars across an entire side of Ganymede.

But on revisiting the structures, the scientists behind the new research believe that's an underestimate, and that the furrows represent an impact so large as to affect the entire moon.

The scientists then reanalyzed observations that covered what's called the Dark Terrain, which includes the oldest surfaces on Ganymede.

But if an impact was to blame, quite a large asteroid — at least 30 miles (50 kilometers) across and possibly more like 90 miles (150 km) across — could have been involved in that collision, leaving a bullseye series of rings and fractures across the moon that, after millennia of geological processes, have become the furrows and troughs scientists see now.

If that modeling is correct, the scientists say, they have found the largest impact scar in the solar system, with a radius as large as 4,800 miles (7,800 km) — that's a radius about twice the length of the Mississippi River.

The current largest known impact system, called Valhalla Crater and found on another Jupiter moon, Callisto, pales in comparison, with a radius of 1,200 miles (1,900 km)!

The scientists behind the new research hope that new data will help them better interpret the furrows of Ganymede and understand precisely what formed them.