"Europa Wedges" Educational Activity Page
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using Netscape, you will need to have downloaded in advance a new version of the plug-in Shockwave in order to proceed. Click on "Get Shockwave" if you need this free plug-in. You will also need to have Java enabled, and you may need to increase the memory requirement for Netscape in order for Shockwave to work.
Read the Introduction to begin. |
Welcome to Galileo's Europa Wedges Educational Activity page! The
recent NASA Galileo mission brought back to Earth exciting, new images
of the surface of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa. These images show a variety
of fascinating geological features, such as wedges, fractures, flows produced by ice volcanism, low
ridges and pits. These features not only suggest that Jupiter's
moon may be geologically active, but may hold evidence that a liquid
ocean exists or once existed under Europa's icy crust.
To understand how scientists interpret these features on Europa,
you will first need to learn more about geologic processes on Earth,
such as plate tectonics, sea floor spreading, and cross-cutting relationships.
