Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On January 30, 2011 @ 10:30 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day [1]
[2]
Gibbous Europa
Credit: Galileo Project [3], JPL [4], NASA [5]; reprocessed by Ted Stryk [6]
Explanation: Although the phase [7] of this moon might appear familiar, the moon itself might not. In fact, this gibbous phase [8] shows part of Jupiter [9]‘s moon Europa [10]. The robot spacecraft Galileo [11] captured this image [12] mosaic during its mission orbiting Jupiter from 1995 – 2003. Visible are plains [13] of bright ice [14], cracks [15] that run to the horizon, and dark patches [16] that likely contain both ice and dirt. Raised terrain [17] is particularly apparent near the terminator [18], where it casts shadows [19]. Europa [20] is nearly the same size as Earth’s Moon [21], but much smoother, showing few highlands [22] or large impact craters [23]. Evidence and images from the Galileo spacecraft [3], indicated that liquid oceans might exist [24] below the icy surface. To test speculation that these seas hold life, NASA and ESA [25] have started preliminary development of the Europa Jupiter System Mission [26], a spacecraft proposed [27] for launch around 2020 that would further explore Jupiter and in particular Europa. If the surface ice is thin enough, a future mission might drop hydrobots [28] to burrow into the oceans and search for life.
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URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/01/30/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-5/
URLs in this post:
[1] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
[2] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/europa_galileo_1200.jpg
[3] Galileo Project: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/
[4] JPL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
[5] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/
[6] Ted Stryk: http://planetimages.blogspot.com/
[7] phase: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010218.html
[8] gibbous phase: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbous
[9] Jupiter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter
[10] Europa: http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/jupiter/europa.html
[11] Galileo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_%28spacecraft%29
[12] this image: http://planetimages.blogspot.com/2005/09/new-color-views-of-europa.html
[13] plains: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap981215.html
[14] bright ice: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000418.html
[15] cracks: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980310.html
[16] dark patches: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970815.html
[17] Raised terrain: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980303.html
[18] terminator: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_%28solar%29
[19] shadows: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap001225.html
[20] Europa: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap961120.html
[21] Earth’s Moon: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020127.html
[22] highlands: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/moon/moon_surface.html
[23] large impact craters: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010809.html
[24] might exist: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980102.html
[25] ESA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency
[26] Europa Jupiter System Mission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Jupiter_System_Mission
[27] spacecraft proposed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C84cYlHzn4
[28] hydrobots: http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/NVA2%7E14%7E14%7E25039%7E124507:cryobot-hydrobot
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