LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) — NASA has released the first image of Jupiter’s ice-encrusted moon Europa, which was taken by the Juno spacecraft as it flew by.
The image was captured on Thursday during the solar-powered spacecraft’s closest approach at a distance of about 352 kilometers.
This is only the third close pass below 500 kilometers in history and the closest look any spacecraft has provided at Europa since January 3, 2000, when NASA’s Galileo came within 351 kilometers of the surface, according to the agency.
Europa is the sixth largest moon in the solar system, slightly smaller than Earth’s moon. Scientists think a salty ocean lies beneath a miles-thick shell of ice, raising questions about the potential conditions capable of supporting life beneath Europa’s surface. Let’s end