EUROPA
OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (2l3) 354-5011
EUROPA PHOTO CAPTION Voyager 1-79
P-21208C
March 5, 1979
This picture of Europa, the smallest Galilean satellite, was taken
in the afternoon of March 4, 1979, from a distance of about 2 million
kilometers (1.2 million miles) by Voyager 1. This face of Europa is
centered at about the 300 degree meridian. The resolution of this
picture of Europa is about the best that will be obtained by Voyager 1,
but the second spacecraft will take much clearer photographs of this
satellite in July. The bright areas are probably ice deposits while the
darkened areas may be the rocky surface or areas with a more patchy
distribution of ice. The most unusual features are the systems of long
linear structures which cross the surface in various directions. Some
of these linear structures are over a thousand kilometers long and
about 2 or 3 hundred kilometers wide. They may be fractures or faults
which have disrupted the surface. JPL manages and controls the Voyager
project for NASA's Office of Space Science.
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