LIKE A FROSTY

HEART
By: Mark Vincent Cabacungan
If we are to associate a certain thing amongst the Jovian planet, we might
think of the word “ring” because of the fact that all Jovian planets have their
own halo-like material on them. Yet, another thing that separates them and
makes them pretty distant to other planets is the number of moons they have.
Think of this, you find romantic to sit under the moon at night with your love
ones, but, would it be more romantic if you’ll find yourselves sitting under a
lot of lunas? In this section, we’re going to learn about one of the 79 moons of
Jupiter－the icy, Europa.
Europa was first discovered by the Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610
with the other three Galilean moons. At first, he termed it as the Jupiter II.
Moreover, on the same year, another astronomer in Simon Marius also
discovered the moon and named it as Europa based on the Greek mythology.
After its discovery, the close range interaction of a space probe on that
Jupiter’s moon happened in 1979 by Voyager 1 and two other spacecrafts and
another is in mid-1990’s by the Galileo orbiter (The Editors, 2021).
According to NASA (2019), as seen of the ground-based
telescope, Europa has a surface of mostly water and ice and
scientists believed that underneath the icy crust is an ocean of
liquid water. It has an equatorial diameter of 1,940 kilometers
and might possibly as big as our Earth moon. Europa orbits the
planet Jupiter at a distance of 417,000 miles and with a rate of
3.5 days. Moreover, according to an article in Encyclopedia
Britannica (2021), traces of oxygen and water were found in its
atmosphere. Though the atmosphere is too thin compared to that
of the Earth, the presence of oxygen presents a huge evidence
that life can exist on that Jovian moon. Meanwhile, models also
present the iron-rich core of the moon surrounded by a rocky
mantle. It also have been found that there is an induced magnetic
field on Europa that enables water to stay still on the surface.
Moreover, based on recent studies, plums have also been
identified much alike to that of one of Saturn’s moon, which
could serve as an entry pass to study Europa closer.
ASTRONOMICAL FACTS
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 Jupiter’s large Galilean satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) likely formed out of leftover material
after Jupiter condensed from the initial cloud of gas and dust surrounding the sun, early in the history of the solar
system. Those four moons are likely about the same age as the rest of the solar system — about 4.5 billion years
old. In fact, the Galilean satellites are sometimes called a “mini solar system” since they formed from the
leftovers of Jupiter similar to how Earth and other planets formed from gas and dust left over from the formation
of our Sun. The similarities don’t end there. Each planet in the inner solar system is less dense than their inner
neighbor — Mars is less dense than Earth, which is less dense than Venus, which is less dense than Mercury. The
Galilean moons follow the same principle, being less dense the farther they are from Jupiter. The reduced density
at greater distances is likely due to temperature: denser, rocky and metal material condenses out first, close to
Jupiter or the Sun, while lighter-weight icy material only condenses out at larger distances where it is colder
(NASA, 2019).
Past and current studies on the structure and
composition of Europa will have a great impact on how we
perceive the entire solar system. This would probably have
something to do with the existence of life beyond the sphere
where we are now. The presence of liquid water and a
tenuous atmosphere made of oxygen on Europa will provide
a claim that humans and living organisms can potentially
live there. Moreover, have almost the same composition and
structure like the Earth, Europa holds a great claim as to
becoming a new home (NASA, 2019).
According to Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2021), future
studies are also beneficial as it would gear towards another
claim that Europa has this potential to support seafloor
volcanoes because of its hot, metallic interior. There have
been evidences collected but the stronghold for a better
understanding of these phenomenon needs to be validated still. Moreover, based from NASA (2019), the
viability of plums are not so strong and so, there is still a need for studies in order to prove the existence of plums
which could propel more of our understanding of the moon.

REFERENCES:
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia. (2021, April 9). Europa. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/place/Europa-satellite-of-Jupiter
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (2021, May 26). Jupiter’s moon Europa may have an interior hot enough to fuel
seafloor volcanoes. Retrieved last May 28, 2021 from https://scitechdaily.com/jupiters-moon-europa-may-
have-an-interior-hot-enough-to-fuel-seafloor-volcanoes/
NASA. (2019). Europa ocean moon. Retrieved from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/
europa/in-depth/

ASTRONOMICAL FACTS
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