Europa, a moon of Jupiter, appears as a thick crescent in this enhanced-color image from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 1995.The view combines images taken in violet, green and near-infrared filters in 1998 and 1995. The colors have been stretched to show the subtle differences in materials that cover the icy surface of Europa. Reddish linear features are some of the cracks and ridges, thousands of kilometers long, which are caused by the tides raised by the gravitational pull of Jupiter. Mottled, reddish "chaotic terrain" exists where the surface has been disrupted and ice blocks have moved around. The red material at the ridges and chaotic terrain is a non-ice contaminant and could be salts brought up from a possible ocean beneath Europa's frozen surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment