Jupiter's Satellite Europa

Credit: NASA/JPL/DLR

The image shows the approximate natural color appearance of Europa. Dark areas are rocky material derived from the interior, implanted by impact, or from a combination of interior and exterior sources. Bright plains in the polar areas are ice. Dark lines are fractures in the crust, some of which are more than 3,000 kilometers (1,850 miles) long. The bright feature containing a central dark spot in the lower third of the image is a young impact crater some 50 kilometers (31 miles) in diameter. This crater has been provisionally named "Pwyll" for the Celtic god of the underworld.

Europa is about 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) in diameter, or about the size of Earth's moon. This image was taken on September 7, 1996, at a range of 677,000 kilometers (417,900 miles).