This newly-reprocessed color view of Europa was made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
Posted on 11/22/2014 11:31:42 AM PST by BenLurkin
Europa, Jupiter’s sixth-closest moon, has long been a source of fascination and wonder for astronomers. Not only is it unique amongst its Jovian peers for having a smooth, ice-covered surface, but it is believed that warm, ocean waters exist beneath that crust – which also makes it a strong candidate for extra-terrestrial life.
And now, combining a mosaic of color images with modern image processing techniques, NASA has produced a new version of what is perhaps the best view of Europa yet. And it is quite simply the closest approximation to what the human eye would see, and the next best thing to seeing it up close.
The high-resolution color image, which shows the largest portion of the moon’s surface, was made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo probe. Using the Solid-State Imaging (SSI) experiment, the craft captured these images during it’s first and fourteenth orbit through the Jupiter system, in 1995 and 1998 respectively.
The view was previously released as a mosaic with lower resolution and strongly enhanced color (as seen on the JPL’s website). To create this new version, the images were assembled into a realistic color view of the surface that approximates how Europa would appear to the human eye.
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In addition to the newly processed image, JPL has released a new video that explains why this likely ocean world is a high priority for future exploration:
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Did NASA find any mosques there yet?
When did humanity ever heed good advice?
nice to see NASA eschewing false color.
Europa and the Pirate Twins - Thomas Dolby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNWPYH-XKpI
Oh. I thought it was going to be a video about The Ice Pirates.
Unlike Mars and Sir Percival Lowell, these really do look like canals.
Looks like a street map of Atlanta.
Looks like my eyeball after a day of hiking in AZ desert dust.
I remember the Lotus Europa! Do they still make those??!
Galileo Orbiter
Instrument Solid-State Imaging
Size: 536 x 900 pixels (width x height)
Eschew, gesundheit.
People should give the whole Islam/Muslim thing a rest on EACH and EVERY space/NASA thread that comes along. Everyone knows about it, and it was overdone, like 5 years ago. People saying such things aren’t even funny anymore. Like beating a dead horse. It just takes up space on the page, and is little more than noise. People don’t laugh at it anymore.(if they ever did)
Please move back to ‘Uranus’ jokes. (well, please don’t do that either - we STILL have enough of those)
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