This view of Jupiter's moon Europa shows a portion of the
surface that has been highly disrupted by fractures and ridges.
This picture covers an area about 238 kilometers (150 miles)
wide by 225 kilometers (140 miles), or about the distance
between Los Angeles and San Diego. Symmetric ridges in the dark
bands suggest that the surface crust was separated and filled
with darker material, somewhat analogous to spreading centers in
the ocean basins of Earth. Although some impact craters are
visible, their general absence indicates a youthful surface. The
youngest ridges, such as the two features that cross the center
of the picture, have central fractures, aligned knobs, and
irregular dark patches. These and other features could indicate
cryovolcanism, or processes related to eruption of ice and
gases. This picture, centered at 16 degrees south latitude, 196
degrees west longitude, was taken at a distance of 40,973
kilometers (25,290 mi) on November 6, 1996 by the Galileo
spacecraft solid state imaging television