Jupiter’s Moon, Europa

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft sent back this image of Jupiter’s moon Europa which shows the surface crust is made up of blocks.  It’s thought tat the blocks have broken apart and drifted into new positions. This is considered the best geological evidence so far that Europa has had a subsurface ocean at some point in it’s past history.

This data and the fact that Europa has a magnetic field has lead scientists to believe an ocean is most likely present today.

In this false color image, reddish-brown areas represent non-ice material resulting from geologic activity.  White areas are material ejected during the formation of the Pwyll impact crater.  Whilst icy plains are shown in blue tones to distinguish possibly coarse-grained ice (dark blue) from fine-grained ice (light blue).  Long, dark lines are ridges and fractures in the crust, some of which are more than 1,850 miles long.

Tags: Europa, Galileo spacecraft, Jupiter II, Jupiter's satellites