Juno’s JunoCam Images of Europa

Abstract

On 2022 September 29 the Juno spacecraft passed Europa at 355 km, the first close pass since the Galileo flyby in 2000. Juno’s visible-light imager, JunoCam, collected four images, enabling cartographic, topographic, and surface geology analysis. The topography along the terminator is consistent with previously reported features that may indicate true polar wander. A bright band was discovered, and indicates global symmetry in the stress field that forms bright bands on Europa. The named feature Gwern is shown not to be an impact crater. Surface change detection shows no changes in 22 yr, although this is a difficult task considering differences between the JunoCam and Galileo imagers and very different viewing geometries. No active eruptions were detected.

Keywords

• Europa