Voyager 2 Image of Europa
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OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION JET PROPULSION LABORATORY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011 PHOTO CAPTION Voyager 2 P-21744 C July 7, 1979
This image of Europa was acquired by Voyager 2 on July 4, from a range of 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles). The central longitude is 235 degrees west. On July 9, Voyager 2 will make its closest approach to Europa photographing regions on the bright limb (right). Europa, the size of the Earth's moon, is apparently covered by water ice as indicated by ground based spectrometers and its brightness. In this view, global scale dark streaks discovered by Voyager 1 that criss-cross the disk are becoming visible. Bright rayed impact craters which are abundant on ancient Ganymede and Callisto would easily be visible at this range. The suggestion is that Europa's surface is young and that the streaks are reflections of currently active internal dynamic processes.