See the icy moon Europa up close and personal in Juno image | Digital Trends

Late last month, the Juno spacecraft performed a close flyby of Jupiter’s moon Europa, coming within around 219 miles of the moon’s surface — a mere hair away in spacecraft terms. As the spacecraft whipped by Europa at a relative speed of almost 15 miles per second, it collected data including images from this most intriguing location. And now NASA has released the highest-resolution image Juno has ever taken of Europa, showing its surface in stunning detail.

Europa is a particularly intriguing place due to its potential habitability. Its surface is covered in a thick crust of ice 10 miles deep, but beneath this ice there is thought to be a salt water ocean. That liquid water makes it a potentially habitable environment, so there is great interest in examining the moon in more depth to see if it could possibly host life.

The image of Europa’s surface shows the grooves and ridges in the ice, covering an area of around 93 miles by 125 miles. It was taken by Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit instrument which takes black and white images to help the spacecraft point in the right direction by imaging the stars. But researchers have found clever ways to make use of the camera for scientific work as well, particularly in low-light conditions.

“This image is unlocking an incredible level of detail in a region not previously imaged at such resolution and under such revealing illumination conditions,” said Heidi Becker, the lead co-investigator for the SRU, in a statement. “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.

Juno was launched in 2011 and was originally intended to only study the planet Jupiter. But in 2021 the mission was extended to include the study of several of Jupiter’s moons: Ganymede, Europa, and Io. It performed a flyby of Ganymede in 2021, has now visited Europa in 2022, and in 2023 it will pass by Io. And the moons of Jupiter are set to be busy in the next decade, as they will also be hosting the NASA Europa Clipper mission and the European Space Agency JUICE mission.

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Juno photos reveal more stunning glimpses of Jupiter's ice-covered moon EuropaTereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, aspiring fiction writer and amateur gymnast. Originally from Prague, the Czech Republic, she spent the first seven years of her career working as a reporter, script-writer and presenter for various TV programmes of the Czech Public Service Television. She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency. Wow and also the Juno lawsuit settlement with their dirty ass water that killed a bunch of people is going on too MaggeDelbene Cuando recordamos la mitología donde Júpiter la cuerneaba a Juno con Europa, esta foto adquiere todo un otro significado 😀
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