This
feature on Europa was seen as a dark, diffuse circular patch on a previous
Galileo global image of Europa's leading hemisphere on April 3, 1997. The
'bulls-eye' pattern appears to be a 140 km wide impact scar (about the size
of the island of Hawaii) which formed as the surface fractured minutes after
a mountain-sized asteroid or comet slammed into the satellite. This approximately
214 km wide picture is the product of three images which have been processed
in false color to enhance shapes and compositions. |
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North
is toward the top of this picture, which is illuminated from sunlight coming
from the west. This color composite reveals a sequence of events which have
modified the surface of Europa. The earliest event was the impact which
formed the Tyre structure at 34 degrees north latitude and 146.5 degrees
west longitude. The impact was followed by the formation of the reddish
lines superposed on Tyre. The red color designates areas that are probably
a dirty water ice mixture. The fine blue-green lines crossing the region
from west to east appear to be ridges which formed after the crater. |
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