From the Office of Space Science budget request:

"The Origins initiative, first funded in the FY 1998 budget, was the first major new area of scientific research program initiated under the Office of Space Science's Strategic Plan. A major component of this Origins initiative was a new program funding future low-cost missions to the outer Solar System. NASA is pleased to announce that a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa will be the first mission in this series. Recently, exciting images from the Galileo spacecraft have strongly suggested that Europa once had, and may still have, liquid water beneath its icy crust. Life on Earth has been found wherever liquid water is, including extreme environments in the deep oceans and underneath miles of rock. If liquid water is present on Europa, other conditions may have existed (or still exist) to support life there. The new Europa Orbiter mission is expected to launch in the year 2003, and will measure the thickness of the surface ice and detect an underlying liquid ocean if it exists. Using an instrument called a radar sounder to bounce radio waves through the ice, the spacecraft would be able to detect an ice-water boundary, perhaps as little as one kilometer below the surface. Other instruments would reveal details of the surface and interior processes. This mission could be a precursor to sending remote controlled submarines capable of melting through the ice and exploring the undersea realm."

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• Icy Europa and similar scales on Earth (Released May 19, 1997)
• Close-up of Europa's Trailing Hemisphere and similar scales on Earth (Released May 20, 1997)
• Icy Europa and similar scales on Earth (Released May 21, 1997)
• Structurally Complex Surface of Europa and similar scales on Earth (Released May 22, 1997)
• Close-up of Europa's Surface and similar scales on Earth (Released May 23, 1997)

• Galileo Europa Animation COOL!
• Context of Europa images from Galileo
• High Spatial Resolution Europa Coverage by Galileo NIMS (Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer)

Discovery News (by the Discovery Channel and ABC News) is broadcast on the Discovery Channel (times EDT and PDT) Fridays at 9 p.m. and midnight; Saturdays at 3 p.m.; and Sundays at 12:30 p.m.

• New Galileo ../images Hint At Wet And Wild History For Europa
• Pwyll Crater on Europa
• Close-up of Europa's Trailing Hemisphere
• Europa Ridges, Hills, and Domes
• Mosaic of Europa's Ridges, Craters
• Europa Triple Band
• Europa Ice Rafts
• Close-up of Europa's Surface

• Archive of Europa images Taken during the E4 encounter at JPL
• Ice Volcanoes Reshape Europa's Chaotic Surface
• Image of Prominent Doublet Ridges on Europa
• Image of Structurally Complex Surface on Europa
• Image of Ridges on Europa
• Image of Icy Satellite Europa
• Image of Flows on Europa
• Image of Macula on Europa
• Image of Jupiter's Ring

"This view of Jupiter's moon Europa shows a portion of the surface that has been highly disrupted by fractures and ridges. This picture covers an area about 238 kilometers (150 miles) wide by 225 kilometers (140 miles), or about the distance between Los Angeles and San Diego. Symmetric ridges in the dark bands suggest that the surface crust was separated and filled with darker material, somewhat analogous to spreading centers in the ocean basins of Earth. Although some impact craters are visible, their general absence indicates a youthful surface. The youngest ridges, such as the two features that cross the center of the picture, have central fractures, aligned knobs, and irregular dark patches. These and other features could indicate cryovolcanism, or processes related to eruption of ice and gases."