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PHOTO CAPTION
P-48532
April 9, 1997

This view of the icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa, is a mosaic of two
pictures taken by the Solid State Imaging system on board the Galileo
spacecraft during a close flyby of Europa on February 20, 1997. The pictures
were taken from a distance of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles). The area shown
is about 14 kilometers by 17 kilometers (8.7 miles by 10.6 miles), and has a
resolution of 20 meters (22 yards) per pixel. Illumination is from the right
(east). The picture is centered at about 14.8 north latitude, 273.8 west
longitude, in Europa's trailing hemisphere.

One of the youngest features seen in this area is the double ridge cutting
across the picture from the lower left to the upper right. This double ridge
is about 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) wide and stands some 300 meters (330
yards) high. Small craters are most easily seen in the smooth deposits along
the south margin of the prominent double ridge, and in the rugged ridged
terrain farther south. The complexly ridged terrain seen here shows that
parts of the icy crust of Europa have been modified by intense faulting and
disruption, driven by energy from the planet's interior.

Launched in October 1989, Galileo entered orbit around Jupiter on December
7, 1995. The spacecraft's mission is to conduct detailed studies of the
giant planet, its largest moons and the Jovian magnetic environment. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of
Space Science, Washington, DC.