Pwyll Crater on Europa

Pwyll crater on Jupiter's moon, Europa, was photographed by the Solid State Imaging system on the Galileo spacecraft during its sixth orbit around Jupiter. This impact crater is located at 26 degrees south latitude, 271 degrees west longitude, and is about 16 miles (26 kilometers) in diameter. Lower resolution pictures of Pwyll Crater taken earlier in the mission show that material ejected by the impact can be traced for hundreds of miles across the icy surface of Europa. The dark zone seen here in and around the crater is material excavated from a few miles (several kilometers) below the surface. Also visible in this picture are complex ridges.

The two images comprising this mosaic were taken on Feb. 20, 1997 from a distance of 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometers) by the Galileo spacecraft. The area shown is about 75 miles by 60 miles (120 kilometers by 100 kilometers).