Gibbous Europa

Although the phase of this moon might appear familiar, the moon itself might not.
In fact, this gibbous phase shows part of Jupiter's moon Europa. The robot spacecraft
Galileo captured this image mosaic during its mission orbiting Jupiter from 1995 - 2003.
Visible are plains of bright ice, cracks that run to the horizon, and dark patches
that likely contain both ice and dirt. Raised terrain is particularly apparent near the
terminator, where it casts shadows. Europa is nearly the same size as Earth's Moon, but
much smoother, showing few highlands or large impact craters. Evidence and images from
the Galileo spacecraft, indicated that liquid oceans might exist below the icy surface. To
test speculation that these seas hold life, ESA has started preliminary development of the
Jovian Europa Orbiter, a spacecraft proposed to orbit Europa. If the surface ice is thin
enough, a future mission might drop hydrobots to burrow into the oceans and search for life.