The trailing side of Europa, imaged by Galileo.
An exceptionally smooth surface, covered with shifting ice sheets.
The darker streaks and other dark areas are areas of dirty ice.
(Galileo Project, JPL, NASA, apod961120)
Crescent Europa, as photographed by Voyager 2 in 1979
(Voyager 2, NASA, apod020225)
A portion of the crescent Europa image, considerably reprocessed to enhance detail.
(Voyager Project, JPL, NASA, Calvin Hamilton, apod960813)
A closer view of the dirty streaks, intermixed with cleaner ice.
(Galileo Project, JPL, NASA, apod961022)
Shifting ice structures near the Earth's North Pole, in mid-Spring (early May, 2000).
Note the similarity of the "leads" of open ice and slush to the cracks on Europa's surface.
(MODIS, EOS, NASA, apod001020)
Rafts and ridges of material on Europa.
(Galileo Project, JPL, NASA, University of Arizona, apod980910)
Another view of rafts and ridges on Europa.
(Galileo Project, JPL, NASA, apod980102)
Closeup of Lenticulae ("freckles") on Europa.
Probably areas where blobs of warmer ice have penetrated through surface layers.
If there is an ocean below the icy surface, it might be reached more easily from such places, than elsewhere.
(Galileo Project, JPL, NASA, R. Pappalardo (U. Colorado), apod021101)
Ice hills and fractures.
(Galileo Project, JPL, NASA, apod980303)
An icy crater, Pwyll, thought to be one of the youngest features on Europa.
The crater is about 15 miles across, and rays of debris (water ice?) extend for hundreds of miles.
(PIRL, Galileo Project, NASA, apod020413)
Another impact structure, almost 90 miles across, on Europa.
In this case, since other features cross through the structure, it must be older than them.
(Galileo Project, JPL, NASA, apod970815)
Possible internal structure of Europa. The crust is a shifting layer of various ices (white).
Beneath that is a liquid or soft ice layer (blue), a rocky core (brown), and a central core of nickel and iron (gray).
(Calvin Hamilton)
Comparison of possible internal structures of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter
(Calvin Hamilton)
Relative size of various large moons, and Pluto. (NASA, Wikipedia Commons)
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