Europa's surface. Galileo spacecraft image of the surface of Europa, one of the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter. The icy surface crust of Europa is folded

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Europa's surface. Galileo spacecraft image of the surface of Europa, one of the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter. The icy surface crust of Europa is folded into complex ridges & faults. Symmetric ridges in the dark bands indicate that the crustal plates have separated and the area between them filled with darker material coming up from beneath. A similar process occurs on Earth when mid-ocean ridges form as continental plates pull apart due to plate tectonics. Some ridges have features that suggest the \volcanic\" eruption of gas and ice. Image taken by Galileo's Solid State Imaging cam- era from a distance of 40,973 kilometres (km) on 6 November 1996. The image area is about 168x177km."

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Size: 3902px × 4498px
Photo credit: © NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: astronomy, cosmology, europa, fault, features, galilean, galileo, geological, imagery, jovian, jupiter, moon, planet, planetary, plate, ridge, science, tectonic, tectonics