Europa
Europa is a moon of Jupiter. It is one of the four Galilean moons along with Ganymede, Callisto, and Io, and it is the smallest of the four Galilean moons. These four moons are the largest and the only ones that can be seen around Jupiter on a telescope from Earth. Even though Europa is the smallest of the four, it is still the sixth largest moon in the solar system. The other two moons that are larger are Titan (largest moon of Saturn) and our moon, The Moon. Europa was named after one of Jupiter's many girlfriends from Greek mythology.
Some statistical facts of Europa
Diameter: 3,121 km (1940 miles)
Orbit time: 3.55 days for a full orbit around Jupiter
Distance from Jupiter: 670,900 km (416,900 miles)
Discovery: 1610*
*It was discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo.
Europa's Surface
Europa's surface is made up of ice. The ice is 50-100 miles deep and there is speculation of an ocean underneath the ice layer, which may support life. This makes Europa one of the most anticipated bodies in the solar system for future exploration. Europa also has one of the smoothest bodies in our Solar System. Even though the surface is full of cracks, valleys, ridges, pits, blisters, and icy flows, they are relatively shallow. None of them exceed few hundred meters upwards or downwards.
In some areas of the surface, huge sections have been split apart or separated. There are few impact craters, and the pits are caused by collision of asteriods or comets.
Europa's interior is made up mostly of rock and the core may be rich in iron. As previously stated, there could be an ocean beneath the ice layer at the surface as it's shown above.
One experiment to conduct on Europa is to drill through the ice layer to find out what lies underneath it. The drilling machine must be one of the most powerful and most advanced instruments ever created because it will have to go through miles and miles of ice.
Another experiment to conduct on Europa, which actually depends on the results of the first experiment, is to send a team of oceanographers, astrobiologists, and geologists in a submarine to explore the oceanography, the biology, and the geology, hiding underneath the ice layer. This will be paramount to understanding if life exists in the ocean, if so what kind of life? It will be paramount to studying the ocean itself and geological history as well as geological activities that may currently be happening.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1). http://singularidad.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/europa_life.jpg
2). http://athene.as.arizona.edu/~lclose/teaching/a202/life_on_europa.gif
3). http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/europa_worldbook.html
4). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon)
5). http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/jupiter/moons/europa.html&edu=elem
Comments (5)
Peilin said
at 10:27 pm on Jan 11, 2009
The information on the planet is well put. The experiments section is a little short, does not explain much, more information on how would be nice, btw the fonts the size of the font made the web page easy to read.
Dave Goldberg said
at 5:56 pm on Jan 6, 2009
The pictures on your page made the information easier to understand. You could have discussed more about how to follow through with the experiments, but overall a solid project.
Ivanna Subbotina said
at 5:23 pm on Jan 6, 2009
Your informantion went straight to the point and was very direct which is definitely the strongest part of this page.
I also liked the fact that when you proposed your experiments, you provided pictures with them and it helped a lot because I can actually see what you are talking about.
Luka Novak said
at 4:43 pm on Jan 4, 2009
This is a good page with clear information, you really knew your topic well. The pictures added to the presentation. The proposed experiments are good ideas, the only thing I would suggest is to elaborate on some details, like what you would make the drill out of.
Nayan Walia said
at 10:34 am on Dec 30, 2008
I really like your page. The pictures helped illustrate what you were trying to say. I think you should have put more information about how you would have liked to do your experiments. All in all, this page was nice to read without too much information on one thing alone.
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