JunoCam Close-Up of Europa

The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa is shown in an image from the JunoCam color public engagement camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. The data for this image was taken Sept. 29, 2022.

During its flybys in the late 1990s and 2000, NASA's Galileo mission mapped much of Jupiter's moon Europa at a resolution of 0.6 miles per pixel (1 kilometer per pixel) or better, but there are some patches that were imaged only at low resolution. Images from JunoCam have now filled in one of those regions, shown here. Cracks, ridges, and bands show up clearly, and can be visually traced across images to match up to the cracks and ridges that appear in the earlier Galileo images. The way these features crosscut the surface can reveal which sections of the terrain are younger and which are older, helping scientists to fill in Europa's tectonic history.

Paul Schenk processed the images.

JunoCam's raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and https://www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.

More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu.