From its history, to its composition, to the potential for colonization, and more! Join us as we explore Europa: Jupiter's "Veiny Eyeball" Moon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe for more videos:https://www.youtube.com/c/InsaneCuriosity?sub_confirmation=1? Business Enquiries: lorenzovareseaziendale@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. The Discovery Of Europa Europa is just one of many moons around Jupiter, and each one has a history that is all their own, including their discovery by a certain legendary astronomer. Europa, along with Jupiter's three other large moons, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto, was discovered by Galileo Galilei on January 8th, 1610, and possibly independently by Simon Marius. Though Galileo himself has called this a false claim, and because he was the first to truly document it, he was given the credit. Ironically, at first, Galileo couldn't separate Europa and Io in the sky because of the light that they were giving off. Thus, he had to wait another day and then found out that they were indeed two separate moons. Europa is named after Europa, daughter of the king of Tyre, a Phoenician noblewoman in Greek mythology. Like all the Galilean satellites, Europa is named after a lover of Zeus, the Greek counterpart of Jupiter. Europa was courted by Zeus and became the queen of Crete. The naming scheme was suggested by Simon Marius, who attributed the proposal to Johannes Kepler. The names fell out of favor for a considerable time and were not revived in general use until the mid-20th century. In much of the earlier astronomical literature, Europa is simply referred to by its Roman numeral designation as Jupiter II (a system also introduced by Galileo) or as the "second satellite of Jupiter". In 1892, the discovery of Amalthea, whose orbit lay closer to Jupiter than those of the Galilean moons, pushed Europa to the third position. The Voyager probes discovered three more inner satellites in 1979, so Europa is now counted as Jupiter's sixth satellite, though it is still referred to as Jupiter II. And think about it, all of that struggle just to find and then name a singular moon. 8. Size and Relation To Jupiter With an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles (3,100 kilometers), Europa is about 90 percent the size of Earth’s Moon. So if we replaced our Moon with Europa, it would appear roughly the same size in the sky as our Moon does, but brighter — much, much brighter. Europa’s surface is made of water ice and so it reflects 5.5 times the sunlight than our Moon does. Europa orbits Jupiter at about 417,000 miles (671,000 kilometers) from the planet, which itself orbits the Sun at a distance of roughly 500 million miles (780 million kilometers), or 5.2 astronomical units (AU). One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun. Light from the Sun takes about 45 minutes to reach Europa. Because of the distance, sunlight is about 25 times fainter at Jupiter and Europa than at Earth. Which is important to note for several reasons. Not the least of which is because when it comes to sunlight, you need it to be strong to harness its energy. Which is why solar power is feasible on Earth. On Jupiter, or in this Europa, that wouldn't be as feasible because the fainter wouldn't generate as much power. Despite this though, as noted, the reflective surface does harness the light that does come around and makes the surface much brighter. Which has helped in part to the various probes and satellites that have tried to study it over the years. 7. Orbits And Rotations Europa orbits Jupiter every 3.5 days and is locked by gravity to Jupiter, so the same hemisphere of the moon always faces the planet. Jupiter takes about 4,333 Earth days (or about 12 Earth years) to orbit the Sun (a Jovian year). Jupiter’s equator (and the orbital plane of its moons) are tilted with respect to Jupiter’s orbital path around the Sun by only 3 degrees (Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees). This means Jupiter spins nearly upright so that the planet, as well as Europa and Jupiter’s other dozens of moons, do not have seasons as extreme as other planets do. Jupiter’s moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede are in what is called a resonance – every time Ganymede orbits Jupiter once, Europa orbits twice, and Io orbits four times. Over time, the orbits of most large satellites or planets tend to become circular, but in the case of these three satellites, the resonance produces a forced eccentricity since the satellites line up with each other at the same points in their orbits over and over, giving each other a small gravitational tug that keeps their orbits from becoming circular. Because Europa's orbit is elliptical (slightly stretched out from circular), its distance from Jupiter varies, and the moon’s near side feels Jupiter’s gravity more strongly than its far side. #InsaneCuriosity #EuropaMoon #TheSolarSystem

• published: 09 Jul 2020
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