NASA-Brown press briefing March 2

Scientists will present Galileo images suggesting water on Jupiter moon

At an 11 a.m. press briefing Monday, March 2, 1998, scientists from NASA and Brown University will discuss new images of Jupiter's moon Europa taken by the Galileo spacecraft. The images suggest water may exist below Europa's frozen surface.

Scientists from Brown University and NASA will discuss the most finely detailed images ever taken of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. The images add weight to the idea that water is lurking beneath Europa's icy surface - an intriguing possibility, because water is an essential ingredient for life.

What

Press briefing to release and discuss the significance of images from the Jovian moon Europa. The scientists will analyze three key pieces of evidence that lend support to the theory that an ocean exists below Europa's frozen surface:

• A young crater named Pwyll (after a Celtic god) appears shallow, suggesting the original deep impact crater filled with slushy ice in the last 10 million years.
• Large plates of ice and iceberg-like structures appear to be suspended on a crusty surface of slush.
• Gaps between plates of ice appear to have moved apart and filled in with partially melted ice.

Who

James W. Head III, Brown University, co-investigator of Galileo imaging team

Mike Belton, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Galileo team leader

Robert Pappalardo, Brown University, Galileo team associate

Geoff Collins, Brown University, Galileo team associate

Louise Prockter, Brown University, Galileo team associate

Jay Bergstralh, NASA, Galileo Europa mission program scientist

Where

Room 001, Salomon Center for Teaching, Brown University, Providence, RI

When

11 a.m. Monday, March 2, 1998

Contacts

For directions or information: Scott Turner or Carol Morton at (401) 863-2476.

Images

Color slides and black-and-white prints of Europa's surface will be available at the press briefing and at NASA's web site: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov or http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. Video images will be available on NASA television, broadcast on GE-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, 85 degrees West longitude, 3880.0 MHz frequency, vertical polarization, 6.8 MHz audio (monaural). The video will air Monday at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight EST.