PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA00016: Europa - Full Disk
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 NASA's Voyager 1.
 Target Name:  Europa
 Is a satellite of:  Jupiter
 Mission:  Voyager 
 Spacecraft:  Voyager 1
 Product Size:  400 x 400 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Producer ID:  P21208  
 Addition Date:  1996-08-09 
 Primary Data Set:  Voyager EDRs 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA00016.tif (160.8 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA00016.jpg (6.943 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

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` 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.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
1996-08-09