NASA Shares the Highest-Resolution Image of Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa

NASA's Juno spacecraft has returned beautiful image of the icy moon's surface.

NASA Europa jupiter image
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and a new rover on Mars, we have been spoiled with stunning images of the wonders beyond Earth’s atmosphere. However, it is not just those new telescopes and rovers providing oohs and ahhs.

NASA's Juno mission continues to offer incredible images from around the solar system’s largest planet. The probe, launched more than a decade ago, has shared the highest-resolution image of the icy surface of Europa, one of Jupiter’s 80 moons.

The image reveals an area of Europa’s surface covering about 93 miles by 125 miles. NASA highlights the region that is "crisscrossed with a network of fine grooves and double ridges (pairs of long parallel lines indicating elevated features in the ice)." There are also dark stains along the surface, which NASA says are "possibly linked to something from below erupting onto the surface."

NASA jupiter europa surface
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

Juno took the image with its Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), designed for low-light conditions, during a flyby on September 29 from just 256 miles above the surface. At the time, it was moving at about 15 miles per second. The region was, at that time, in its night and illuminated by "Jupiter shine," sunlight reflecting off Jupiter’s clouds and back at Europa’s surface.

"This image is unlocking an incredible level of detail in a region not previously imaged at such resolution and under such revealing illumination conditions," Heidi Becker, the lead co-investigator for the SRU, said in the announcement. "The team’s use of a star-tracker camera for science is a great example of Juno's groundbreaking capabilities. These features are so intriguing. Understanding how they formed--and how they connect to Europa’s history--informs us about internal and external processes shaping the icy crust."

Juno's primary mission was to study the large gaseous planet. But during the extended mission, as Juno continues to provide valuable science past the timeframe of its initial mission, it has taken time to study three of the planet’s four Galilean moons, including Europa, as well as Jupiter’s rings. Europa, NASA notes, is the sixth-largest moon in the solar system and is almost as large as Earth's moon. "Scientists are confident a salty ocean lies below a miles-thick ice shell," NASA says, "sparking questions about the potential habitability of the ocean." It will be studied further in the 2030s with the launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft.

Want more Thrillist? Follow us on InstagramTwitterPinterestYouTubeTikTok, and Snapchat.

Dustin Nelson is a Senior Staff Writer at Thrillist. Follow Dustin on Twitter.