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Home Europa’s “Great Lake.” Scientists speculate many more exist throughout the shallow regions of the moon’s icy shell. (Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin.) Europa's "Great Lake." Scientists speculate many more exist throughout the shallow regions of the moon's icy shell. (Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin.)

Europa’s “Great Lake.” Scientists speculate many more exist throughout the shallow regions of the moon’s icy shell. (Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin.)

Europa's "Great Lake." Scientists speculate many more exist throughout the shallow regions of the moon's icy shell. (Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin.)

Europa’s “Great Lake.” Scientists speculate many more exist throughout the shallow regions of the moon’s icy shell. (Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin.)

The spacecraft is a “dual-spin” design — a controlled spin keeps Galileo stable. One section of the spacecraft rotates at 3rpm. On this section, six instruments rapidly gather data from many different directions. The other section of the spacecraft holds steady for the four instruments that must point accurately while Galileo is flying through space. (NASA)
Thera Macula (false color) is a region of likely active chaos production above a large liquid water lake in the icy shell of Europa. Color indicates topographic heights relative to background terrain. Purples and reds indicate the highest terrain. (Paul Schenk/NASA)