Europa
Jupiter's icy moon with a hidden ocean.
Europa is the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, slightly smaller than Earth's Moon. It is an icy world with a young surface marked by cracks and streaks and almost no craters, the smoothest known solid surface in the Solar System.
Beneath the ice lies a water ocean kept liquid by tidal heating, which makes Europa a candidate for extraterrestrial life. Hubble has detected possible water vapour plumes.
Quick Facts
- Adjectives
- Europan j
- ʊ
- ˈ
- r
- oʊ
- p
- ən
- Named after
- Ευρώπη Eurōpē
- Discoverer
- Galileo Galilei; Simon Marius
- Discovered
- 8 January 1610
- Inclination
- 0.470° (to Jupiter's equator); 1.791° (to the ecliptic)
- Satellite of
- Jupiter
- Moment of inertia factor
- 0.346, 0.005 (estimate)
- Rotation
- Synchronous
More in Celestial Bodies & Worlds
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