Jupiter's Moon - Europa

E uropa is a strange looking moon of Jupiter with a large number of intersecting features. It was discovered by Simon Marius and Galileo Galilei in 1610. It is unlike Callisto and Ganymede with their heavily cratered crusts. Europa has almost a complete absence of craters as well as almost no vertical relief. As one scientist put it, the features "might have been painted on with a felt marker". There is a possibility that Europa may be internally active due to tidal heating at a level one-tenth or less that of Io. Models of Europa's interior show that beneath a thin 5 km (3 miles) crust of water ice, Europa may have oceans as deep as 50 km (30 miles) or more. The visible markings on Europa could be a result of global expansion where the crust could have fractured, filled with water and froze.

PHYSICAL DATA FOR EUROPA
 Mass (kg) 4.8e + 22
 Mass (Earth = 1) 8.0321e - 03
 Radius (km) 1,569
 Radius (Earth = 1) 2.460e - 01
 Mean Density (g/cm3) 3.01
 Mean Distance from Jupiter (km) 670,900
 Magnitude (V0) 5.29


ORBITAL DATA FOR EUROPA
 Rotational period (days) 3.551181
 Orbital period (days) 3.551181
 Mean orbital velocity (km/s) 13.74
 Orbital eccentricity 0.009
 Orbital inclination (degrees) 0.470
 Escape (km/s) 2.02
 Albedo 0.64


Physical Data Key
 
Mass Mass
Mass Mass compared to that of Earth.
Radius Radius
Radius Radius compared to that of Earth.
Mean Density Average Density.
Distance Distance to the planet's center.
Magnitude The brightness of a star or object.
 
 
Orbital Data Key
 
Rotational Period Number of days to make one complete rotation.
Orbital Period Number of days to obital the planet.
Mean Orbital Velocity Average obital speed.
Orbital Eccentricity Eccentricity.
Orbital Inclination The tilt of the moon or planet.
Escape Escape Velocity.
Albedo Visual geometric albedo.

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