Jupiter’s moon Europa is covered with grooves and ridges. The common hypothesis is that the crust of Europa is composed of thick sheets of ice which float on a liquid water layer deeper in the satellite. As these plates of ice move around, ridges and cracks form.

NASA/Astronomy Picture of the Day

This is a reasonable hypothesis, but it is best in situations like this to keep the “multiple working hypotheses” principle in mind. Here’s my proposal: Europa is a giant cheese ball or it is covered with chip dip. The image of a plate of potato chip dip shown below inspired this alternative hypothesis. Note the ridges, and how they intersect at a variety of angles, just like the ridges and grooves on Europa. I propose that we call these landforms chipsuri ondulate, as the ones on my plate were formed by Lays Ruffles potato chips (literally undulating chips in Romanian).

Grace and Peace