Europa - Full Disk
Photograph
Europa - Full Disk
March 4, 1979
Chromogenic development print
Overall: 19 15/16 × 15 15/16 in. (50.7 × 40.5 cm)
Gift of NASA and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Inscriptions verso (applied label, typed): PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE/ JET PROPULSION LABORATORY/ CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY/ NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION/ PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, 91109. TELEPHONE: (213) 354-5011/ PHOTO CAPTION Voayger 1-79/ P-21208 C/ March 5, 1979/ 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.
