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The Cracked Ice Plains of Europa - October 22nd, 1996.

"What caused the cracks in this giant ice-ball? Jupiter's moon Europa has the smoothest surface in the Solar System and is composed mostly of cracked water-ice. In the above false-coloured picture released by the NASA team in charge of the Galileo mission, blue hues represent ice plains divided by dirty red and brown bands of mottled terrain. As the robot Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter, it sent back revealing pictures of Jupiter and its large moons, including Europa, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto. The region of Europa highlighted above is known as Minos Linea. The cause for many of the cracks remains unknown but may involve shifting stresses from gravity and temperature variations. The Galileo pictures have increased evidence that liquid oceans may indeed exist under these giant ice-sheets, a place possibly ripe for the development of life."