Explore Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa on NASA’s Virtual Tour (Photos)

NASA’s Europa Clipper probe is finally on its way to Jupiter’s icy ocean moon, but it will take a while to get there—about six years. Luckily, we don’t have to wait that long to see Europe up close.

NASA recently updated Track Europea web portal that gives users the opportunity to “fly” the surface of Europa on a tour demonstrating and explaining some of the geological features of the Moon. The map consists of images collected Europe Clipperpredecessors – Voyager 2, GalileoAnd JunoNASA spacecraft that flew around the Moon.

The tour will introduce you to the intriguing geological features of Europa, an icy-crusted moon over a vast ocean believed to be twice the volume of Earth’s oceans combined.

As you fly over the surface, what immediately catches your eye are the long dark lines running across the moon; they are called linea. “One likely explanation for these features is that these are indeed cracks in Europa’s crust. Active cracks open and close as a result of Europa’s tidal flex as it rotates. Jupiter,” NASA officials wrote during the Europa Trek tour.

Connected: Europa Clipper: A Complete Guide to NASA’s Astrobiology Mission

Impact craters are less noticeable. Interestingly, there are only a few of them on the surface of Europe. Planetary scientists estimate the age of the surface of a celestial body by the number of impact craters it has; older surfaces had more time to collect impacts.

“The lack of craters on Europa indicates that we are seeing a fresh, young surface of a geologically active world,” NASA officials wrote. Although Europa itself is thought to be about 4.5 billion years old, its surface is probably only 20 to 180 million years old and is constantly being renewed by geological activity.

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A screenshot from the film — (Image credit: NASA)

For a tour of Europe, visit trek.nasa.gov/europaClick on the “hamburger” icon in the upper left corner of the screen and select the “European Terrain” option. You can, of course, explore the surface yourself.

And if you want to see more of our solar systemYou’ll be glad to know that the Europa Journey is just one of more than a dozen such treks exploring the celestial bodies here. Find the rest in NASA’s Solar System Travels portalincluding our own moonnear-Earth asteroids Ryugu And Bennuand satellite of Saturn Titanium.

Explore Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa on NASA’s Virtual Tour (Photos)

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