Tag Archives: Europa

Mission to Europa

NASA has plans to launch a satellite headed to Europa! The Europa Clipper is planned to complete 45 flybys around Europa at varying heights above the surface (16 miles to 1,700 miles) and collect crucial data about Jupiter’s large moon. Scientists are hoping to gather information about the planet’s icy crust, its depth, and what… Continue reading Mission to Europa Continue reading

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Jupiter’s Galilean Moons

Discovered by Galileo in 1610, Jupiter’s four largest moons are some of the most interesting worlds in our Solar System. “Volcanic Io”: Jupiter’s inner-most moon, Io, is the fourth largest moon in the solar system. It is also the most volcanically-active object in the Solar System, with over 400 active volcanoes. Large mountains cover its […] Continue reading

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Europa, a Galilean Moon of Jupiter

As the title suggests, Europa was discovered by Galileo in 1610.  Although Galileo’s instruments for investigating the cosmos weren’t as sophisticated as ours are today, the relatively large size of Europa, a size comparable to the moon’s size, made it possible for it to be discovered in 1610.  And since then, Europa has been investigated […] Continue reading

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The moon of Europa, or your practical guide to ice skating in space

Do you love astronomy? Do you also love ice skating? (I’m looking at you, Dr. G..) What if I told you that you could have the best of both worlds? You can(!), albeit approximately 4.2 AU away from Earth. Enter Europa, Jupiter’s icy sixth (both largest and closest) moon. Europa is an extremely young moon despite being […] Continue reading

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Tidal Forces

As a person that has always been happiest by the ocean, I really enjoyed learning about tides and decided to do some further research into other effects and instances of tidal forces in our solar system. Just as the Moon causes tides on the Earth, Earth creates tidal forces acting on the Moon. This is […] Continue reading

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The Galilean Moons

When I went out observing on the 24th Avenue Parking Garage the other night, every astronomical object that I saw through the telescope amazed me, but Jupiter especially captured my attention. I had never viewed Jupiter through a telescope before, and on this beautiful and mostly clear night, I was able to clearly see not […] Continue reading

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The deep blue under the crust

NASA’s Cassini mission scientists announced recently that Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, Enceladus, has a warm ocean at its southern pole. The ocean is 9.7 km deep and resides under the moon’s icy crust of about 40 km. Tiny grains of rock were detected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft near Saturn. This indicates that there may be hydrothermal […] Continue reading

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Life on Moons

<Image for this post taken from here> The Galilean moons, especially Europa, have been objects of interest for decades for scientists interested in finding life in our own solar system. Europa’s relatively young surface is, for the most part, devoid of the pockmarked landscapes that signify a geologically inactive world, meaning that there must be … Continue reading Life on Moons Continue reading

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Life on Europa?

Europa is proposed to be a top contender in the possibility of having extraterrestrial life. Under the ice, the oceans …

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Europa’s Ocean

We often think that liquid water is the answer to life in the universe. While it certainly makes some forms of life possible, it doesn’t guarantee their existence. If it did, we would certainly not be alone, even in this solar system, as several Galilean moons are thought to have sub-surface water oceans. The most […] Continue reading

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