The full digital image necessary for scientific analysis will be released within one year of receipt of this orbit's last data. Europa, about the size of Earth's moon, has an icy crust that has been severely fractured, as indicated by the dark linear, curved, and wedged-shaped bands seen here. Areas between the plates are filled with material that was probably icy slush contaminated with rocky debris. Some individual plates were separated and rotated into new positions. Currently, water ice could extend from the surface down to the rocky interior, but the features seen in this image suggest that motion of the disrupted icy plates was lubricated by soft ice or liquid water below the surface at the time of disruption.
North is to the right and the sun is nearly directly overhead.
The spacecraft's mission is to conduct detailed studies of the giant planet, its largest moons and the Jovian magnetic environment.