Red Lines on the cracks of Europa???

Question

On all of the color photos of Europa, there seems to be red lines near the cracks. Could this be algae or some other form of life? Any comments or suggestions?

Answer 1

Remember, most of the vivid-color photos you see are computer-enhanced to create contrast for the various features.  Colors are added or enhanced to show changes in landscape and surface features;  the "red" you're seeing may be just a darker gray in the dim light of the sun at that distance.  

Answer 2

I don't think so. It looks to be light spliting from the ice crystals---like light spliting into the colors of a spectrum (from a solid piece of crystal).

Answer 3

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

Lets use this picture as the example so I know your not looking at false-color photos.

These cracks are rich minerals collected from the surrounding ocean. They are located at the crust, and are thus in too cold of an area to be life. But below the icy crust lies a liquid ocean that probably does have algae.

EDIT: quant is right... you need to make sure your looking at "true color images" and not "false color images". Scientists enhance images all the time for analysis, and sometimes to give them a certain flash. The image I provided is 100% true color and was taken on the Cassani mission. It shows maroon lines which are ridges in the surface filled with rich minerals from the ocean.