A New Look at Europa | Space Wallpaper

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By Space.com Staff
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A New Look at Europa
Remastering data gathered by the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s, experts released an image of Jupiter's moon Europa that a deep space explorer might see. (Image credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SETI Institute, Cynthia Phillips, Marty Valenti)

The Galileo spacecraft traveled around the Jovian system in the late 1990s, collecting data on Europa, Jupiter's frozen moon. After retouching the data using updated calibrations, scientists produced an image that represents what the moon may actually look like. The lengthy scores across the moon's surface seem to confirm data that under the icy crust a liquid ocean flows. This exciting news of liquid water in deep space raises questions of thriving life beyond Earth. [Learn more about Europa.]

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.