Jovian moon Europa – double mountain ridges, dark patches and smooth plains of ice
Jovian moon Europa – double mountain ridges, dark patches and smooth plains of ice
This composite image of a region in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter's moon Europa contains numerous surface features that are typical of the icy crust on this moon. Double mountain ridges of a brownish hue run in straight lines across this section of the image. These could be the frozen vestiges of one-time cryovolcanic activity on this moon. Dark patches extending over several kilometres can be seen almost right across the section of image shown here. There is no clear explanation of the substances forming these mountain ridges, or of the dark patches. A (geologically older) blue surface consisting almost entirely of pure water ice is located under the double ridges. This section of image covers a surface area of 800 by 350 kilometres. The image resolution is 230 metres per pixel. The colour contrasts have been enhanced to highlight morphological details and the surface composition more clearly. These images were recorded using the digital camera system on board the NASA spacecraft Galileo during two different orbits. During the E15 close flyby of Europa on 31 May 1998, high-resolution images were taken from a distance of about 25,000 kilometres. These were combined on the computer with image data from two other colour filters on the camera that captured lower resolution images during the G1 orbit of Galileo on 28 June 1996.
