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Europa (NIRCam Image)

A blue-and-white sphere against a black background is somewhat reminiscent of the famous “Blue Marble” picture of Earth from space. With fuzzy, diffuse edges, this sphere features darker blue patches in most of the northern hemisphere facing the viewer. One, large, crescent-shaped, white patch extends along left side of the southern hemisphere facing the viewer, and a larger, blobby, white patch covers the middle latitudes of the right side of the southern hemisphere. Lighter blue regions border these white patches in the south.

NIRCam (the Near Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured this picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Webb identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa that likely originated in the moon’s subsurface ocean. This discovery has important implications for the potential habitability of Europa’s ocean. The moon appears mostly blue because it is brighter at shorter infrared wavelengths. The white features correspond with the chaos terrain Powys Regio (left) and Tara Regio (center and right), which show enhanced carbon dioxide ice on the surface. 

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 1250 (G. Villanueva)

     

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    9 Nov 2022, 23 Nov 2022
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F070W, F140M, F212N, F250M, F335M, F460M
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Europa
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    One of Jupiter's moons
  • Release Date
    September 21, 2023
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Finds Carbon Source on Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, CSA, Gerónimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), Samantha Trumbo (Cornell University); Image Processing: Gerónimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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A blue-and-white sphere against a black background is somewhat reminiscent of the famous “Blue Marble” picture of Earth from space. With fuzzy, diffuse edges, this sphere features darker blue patches in most of the northern hemisphere facing the viewer. One, large, crescent-shaped, white patch extends along left side of the southern hemisphere facing the viewer, and a larger, blobby, white patch covers the middle latitudes of the right side of the southern hemisphere. Lighter blue regions border these white patches in the south.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:  Blue: F070W+F140M, Green: F212N+F250M, Red: F335M+F460M

Related Images & Videos

Four square panels appear in a horizontal strip. The first features a blue-and-white sphere against a black background, reminiscent of the “Blue Marble” picture of Earth. With fuzzy edges, this sphere has darker blue patches in the northern hemisphere and two large white patches in the southern hemisphere. Below it is the label: “Europa (NIRCam).” Each of the second, third, and fourth panels has a pixelated, roughly circular image of small, white, blue, or orange squares. The orange or blue squares appear in various shades. Several squares are a mix of both orange and blue. In each of these panels, there are slight variations in the arrangement of the colored squares. In the second panel, the label below the image reads: “Crystalline C O 2 ice at 2.7 microns.” In the third panel, the label below the image reads: “Crystalline C O 2 ice at 4.27 microns.” In the fourth panel, the label below the image reads: “Complex C O 2 ice at 4.25 microns.” See the extended description for more details.

Europa Carbon Dioxide Distribution (NIRCam and NIRSpec IFU Image)

This graphic shows a map of Europa’s surface with NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in the first panel and compositional maps derived from Webb’s NIRSpec/IFU (Near Infrared Spectrograph’s Integral Field Unit) data in the following three panels....

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Details

Last Updated
Nov 17, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Science Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, Gerónimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), Samantha Trumbo (Cornell University)

Image Processing Credit

Gerónimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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