Alien Ocean

This enhanced color image shows cracks and ridges on Europa’s surface that reveal a detailed geologic history. Some ridges, such as the prominent one at top right, develop into long, arc-shaped “cycloids” that may be related to changing tidal forces as Europa orbits Jupiter. The wall of this ridge stands perhaps a third of a […]

The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. This is the color view of Europa from Galileo that shows the largest portion of the moon’s surface at the highest resolution. The view was previously released […]