The return to Europe has been a long-awaited one. After more than two decades without approaching Jupiter’s satellite, NASA let us take a look at the new images of the celestial body. Despite offering us a slight preview in recent days, they lacked the detail that many expected. Today, however, we bring you the new images of Europa sent by the Juno probe and, alert of spoilers: they are incredible.
During the last days, NASA has been able to see several areas of Europe. Some of the images taken of the icy celestial body offer us a full body view. Others, however, focus on showing details of its ice crust.
Best of all, NASA has allowed science enthusiasts to process the images captured by the probe’s JunoCam. In this way, they have been able to obtain results that are not only impressive, but also will make it possible to further study what we know about Europa and its relationship with Jupiter.
Europe offers a view like never before thanks to NASA and science enthusiasts
According to the official NASA website, the images taken of Europa make it possible to point out “surface characteristics that reveal details about the functioning of Europa and what could be lurking so much on top of the ice, as in the bottom“.
Let us remember that, according to the community science, the Jovian satellite has the ideal conditions for life. At least as far as chemical components are concerned. However, it is still necessary to study not only its surface, but also the areas that are hidden under its icy crust.
This image of Europa was taken at a distance of 1,521 kilometers from the surface of the satellite.. The region seen is known as Annwn Regio. Thanks to the solar distribution in the image, we can see several interesting features of Europa’s terrain near the area where it begins to darken. It is here that a better look at the bright ridges and bands is offered. These stretch across the fractured surface, revealing the tectonic stresses the moon has been subjected to for millennia.
On the other hand, we can observe a dark and circular area in the lower right region. This area is known as Callanish Crater.
More images of the impressive Jovian satellite
In the image above we can see a closer look at the surface of Europa. On the other hand, to the left and right we see different versions of the same photograph. While the first is the result obtained by JunoCam and minimally processed, the second has been processed by a Navaneeth Krishnan, enthusiastic scientist. In this way, he has managed to reveal details that were previously not possible to observe, as well as highlight the color of Europa’s surface.
“An example of the results can be seen in the lower right of the enhanced image, where pits and a small block cast noticeable shadows. The small-scale texturing of the surface in the image must be carefully studied to distinguish between features and processing artifacts, but the image takes us into the extraterrestrial landscape of Europa.”
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This last image has been presented by NASA as “The highest resolution photo NASA’s Juno mission has ever taken of a specific part of Jupiter’s moon Europa“. Furthermore, they confirm that what we see on its surface is “a detailed view of a puzzling region of the moon’s strongly fractured icy crust.”
Europa is the sixth largest moon in the entire Solar System. In fact, it has 90% of the equatorial diameter of our Moon. While these images represent a first approach to the satellite, the truth is that the mission has much more in its planning. So much so that, according to NASA, in 2030 we will see the launch of Europa Clippera ship whose mission is to answer what is above and below the surface of the celestial body.