Europa's Conamara Chaos 'chaotic region'
Europa's Conamara Chaos 'chaotic region'
The image shows part of the Conamara Chaos region on Jupiter's moon, Europa. The strik-ingly jagged ice crust, with 'icebergs' embedded in a matrix of ice at minus 160 degrees Celsius, captures a dynamic landscape from an earlier era. The image showcases the inter-play of surface colours and ice structures. White and blue areas indicate regions coated with a fine dust of ice particles ejected during the formation of the Pwyll crater that measures 26 kilometres in diameter and is found approximately 1000 kilometres to the south. In contrast, reddish-brown regions are likely caused by mineral impurities, carried and spread by water vapour released during the brief disruption and opening of the crust. The original colour of the icy surface was likely a deep blue. Colours in this image have been enhanced for better contrast. North is up. The image, centred at 9 degrees north latitude and 274 degrees west longitude, covers an area of approximately 70 by 30 kilome-tres and is a mosaic of data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1997.
