Visit NASA's Home Page Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology View the NASA Portal Click to search JPL Visit JPL Home Page Proceed to JPL's Earth Page Proceed to JPL's Solar System Page Proceed to JPL's Stars & Galaxies Page Proceed to JPL's Technology Page Proceed to JPL's People and Facilities Photojournal Home Page View the Photojournal Image Gallery
Top navigation bar

PIA01179: Dark and Bright Ridges on Europa
Target Name: Europa
Is a satellite of: Jupiter
Mission: Galileo
Spacecraft: Galileo Orbiter
Instrument: Solid-State Imaging
Product Size: 792 samples x 574 lines
Produced By: JPL
Producer ID: P49629
MRPS87125
Addition Date: 1998-03-02
Primary Data Set: Galileo EDRs
Full-Res TIFF: PIA01179.tif (517.8 kB)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA01179.jpg (84.28 kB)

Click on the image to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original).

Original Caption Released with Image:
This high-resolution image of Jupiter's moon Europa, taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft camera, shows dark, relatively smooth region at the lower right hand corner of the image which may be a place where warm ice has welled up from below. The region is approximately 30 square kilometers in area. An isolated bright hill stands within it. The image also shows two prominent ridges which have different characteristics; youngest ridge runs from left to top right and is about 5 kilometers in width (about 3.1 miles). The ridge has two bright, raised rims and a central valley. The rims of the ridge are rough in texture. The inner and outer walls show bright and dark debris streaming downslope, some of it forming broad fans. This ridge overlies and therefore must be younger than a second ridge running from top to bottom on the left side of the image. This dark ~2 km wide ridge is relatively flat, and has smaller-scale ridges and troughs along its length.

North is to the top of the picture, and the sun illuminates the surface from the upper left. This image, centered at approximately 14 degrees south latitude and 194 degrees west longitude, covers an area approximately 15 kilometers by 20 kilometers (9 miles by 12 miles). The resolution is 26 meters (85 feet) per picture element. This image was taken on December 16, 1997 at a range of 1300 kilometers (800 miles) by Galileo's solid state imaging system.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is an operating division of California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ galileo.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL


Latest Images Search Methods Animations Spacecraft & Telescopes Related Links Privacy/Copyright Image Use Policy Feedback Frequently Asked Questions Photojournal Home Page First Gov Freedom of Information Act NASA Home Page Webmaster
Bottom navigation bar