Historical Photo Of The Month - February 2003

Early Concept of Europa
Photograph Number 230-2Bc

This 1978 artist's conception of Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, reflected scientists' early conjecture about the makeup of Europa. It shows an icy crust, but no speculation about a possible liquid ocean under it.

In 1978, the Galileo mission was in the early planning stages at JPL. The Galileo spacecraft was launched on October 18, 1989 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. It reached Jupiter in December 1995 and flew by Europa several times during the main mission, which ended in December 1997. A mission extension called the Galileo Europa Mission (GEM) allowed the spacecraft to make eight additional flybys of the moon from December 1997 to December 1999. A great deal of information was collected about Europa, some of which support the current theory of a liquid ocean under the ice.

For more information about Galileo and Europa, please contact the JPL Archives or see the Galileo web site. The Galileo Europa web site contains links to a variety of information, including press releases, status reports and flyby animations.

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