PHYS 1040: Astronomy

Professor Harrison

Discovering Europa

Amy Andresen
February 18, 2015

In the beginning of the movie entitled, Europa Report, 6 astronauts land on an icy cold
planet, with hopes of discovering life similar to that on earth. As they land on the surface, they
are taken back by the ominous beauty of the seemingly frozen world they have stepped into.
Little does the audience know that this seemingly alien planet is actually quite accurate to the
depiction of the outer surface of one of Jupiters moons, Europa.
According to Heather R. Smith, of NASAs Educational Technology Services, Europa is
just one of the 62 moons that orbit Jupiter. It is, however, one of the 4 biggest. The four biggest
of these moons are called IO, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. These four moons are referred to
as The Galilean Satellites. Europa; however, is the smallest (Smith). It is said that Galileo was
the first person to discover Europa in the year 1610, along with the 3 other Galilean satellites,
which helped support the heliocentric model of the solar system (Staff). This helped prove that
satellites or moons orbited something other than the earth, which finally tossed the geocentric
model out the window. Galileo started out by numbering each of the four moons, and eventually,
they all gained names of their own. The name Europa comes from Greek mythology. It is said
that Zeus disguised himself as a white calf, and when a beautiful woman named Europa came
near to take care of him, he abducted her. He ended up carrying her on his back to Crete, and she
later had many of Zeuss children (Staff). Europas unique name seems to reflect the unique and
mysterious characteristics that can be observed through the eyes of the Pioneer 10 and 11, the
Voyager spacecraft, as well as the Galileo spacecraft.
According to PBS.org, spacecrafts Pioneer 10 and 11 were the first to get pictures of
Europa in 1970. They were sent to take pictures of Jupiter, but caught just blurry glimpses of

Europa in the background. The next spacecraft to photograph Europa was the Voyager, sent in
1979. Galileo was the next spaceship to be launched on October 18 1989, and required a
significant amount of help to get as far as Jupiter. Using the orbits of both the Earth and Venus,
after about 2 years, Galileo finally gained the speed necessary to reach Jupiter (NASA). The
Galileo spacecraft is equipped with cameras, which have a resolution of 800x800 pixels, which
isnt much different than a standard camera (Greenberg). As the Galileo spacecraft flies past
Europa, it is able to capture a few images that will tell us numerous things about its surface. With
these fly- by pictures, Greenberg states that, subtle variations in the spacecraft trajectories
caused by Europas gravity, constrained the moons internal densities. There is a metallic core of
radius 700 km, a rock mantel, and an outer layer as thick as ~150 km with the density of liquid or
solid water. Europa is approximately 3,100 km in diameter, which makes it larger than Earths
moon. (Staff) Now, when I hear the word water my mind jumps to the question could this
planet sustain life? As I continued to research, I quickly found that scientists believe it is
completely plausible for life to exist on Europa. Under this solid water surface exists salt water.
One fact about salt is that every living organism needs it. One of the reasons organisms need salt,
is because controlled ratios of water and salt lead to an imbalance called osmotic potential
(AMEAR). Basically, salt regulates how much water our cells absorb, and water helps control
how much salt our cells absorb. The fact that the water underneath the hard surface of Europa is
salt water could very well sustain the idea that it can support life. Europa, being at a distance
five times the sun-earth separation can only have 1/25th the warmth of the sun (Shylaja). If
Europa is that far away from the sun, how does it get its heat? Scientists have speculated about
this, and Shylaja gives us a possible explanation. He states that, There are other important
sources of heat in many of these satellites that lie concealed from our view. They are the

volcanos. Another fact that helps support this theory is that Europa has its own internal
heating system. Eric J. Gaidos suggests that, Hydrothermal vents have been cited as potential
analogs to life on Europa, because they do not receive sunlight and appear to be isolated from
other ecosystems. This hydrothermal theory answers many questions as to how organisms could
survive in Europas ocean. Hydrothermal activity will then produce abundant hydrogen, but
carbon will outgas as methane, rather than as CO2. Likewise, sulfur would appear as sulfide
rather than as oxidants such as elemental sulfur or sulfur dioxide. It thus appears likely either
methanogenesis or elemental sulfur reduction would be able to support life on Europa (Gaidos).
If these factors are present, it is very possible that life could exist on Europa.
An interesting observation made by Greenberg was that the orbit of Europa around
Jupiter is very similar to our moons orbit around the Earth. Both of these moons orbit so that the
same face is always facing the planet it is orbiting. For our moon, we know that this is because of
the moons synchronous rotation. According to Greenberg, Europas rotation is almost
synchronous, but it is close enough to earths to be considered similar. According to PBS.org,
Europa orbits Jupiter at an approximate 671,000 kilometer distance. Due to powerful push-andpull gravitational forces, Europa's orbit is exceptionally oblong. This exaggerated ellipse is
caused by a unique occurrence between Europa and its neighboring satellites Io and Ganymede.
With nearly clock-like precision, Europa makes one trip around Jupiter while Europa's inner
neighbor Io makes two trips around Jupiter. For every two trips Europa makes around Jupiter,
Europa's outer neighbor Ganymede makes only one trip. This orbital phenomenon is called
Laplace resonance, and causes a countering gravitational force that affects Europa's orbit (PBS).
Earths orbit is a bit different from Europas. Earths orbit is more round, and it orbits the sun at
about 149.6 million km (Williams). Another feature that Earth and Europa have in common is

their history of tectonic activity. As scientists observe pictures from the Galileo and the Voyager
spacecrafts, Europa is covered in thousands of cracks. These cracks come from both melting and
freezing of the crust, as well as tectonic activity below the surface. Space.com had this to say
about this interesting fact, "From a purely science or geological perspective, this is incredible,"
study lead author Simon Kattenhorn of the University of Idaho told Space.com."Earth may not
be alone. There may be another body out there that has plate tectonics. And not only that, it's
ice!" Plate tectonics are another factor that could prove that life can exist on Europa. Looking at
Earths tectonics, Space.com states that most scientists believe that plate tectonics are the reason
that there is life on earth. They state that, the movement of plates replenishes nutrients and
helps stabilize the planet's climate by recycling carbon. The fact that Europas surface
undergoes plate tectonics regularly could very well mean that it can support life. Plate tectonics
may also be the reason that Europas surface seems so new compared to Jupiters other moons
(Staff).
Europas atmosphere is an interesting one. Before I did research, I wasnt sure that
Europa even had an atmosphere; I was very wrong. Europas atmosphere is composed of oxygen,
just like earths. The oxygen in Europas atmosphere; however, is not made the same way.
Europa's atmosphere is maintained by charged particles that hit its cold surface and produce
water vapor. The water vapor splits into oxygen and hydrogen; the hydrogen then escapes from
the atmosphere leaving only oxygen behind (PBS). While the atmosphere on earth is relatively
thick and is breathable, Europas atmosphere is not; it is too thin to breathe. The organisms
scientists believe could inhabit such a place are as small as bacteria. Another interesting thing I
found about Europa lies in its ocean. Earth has a significant amount of water, correct? I thought
this until I learned just how much water is thought to be under Europas surface. Shylaja states

that, Beneath these ice blocks, perhaps lie an ocean almost 100kms deep. These numbers imply
that the quantity of water is nearly 3 times that on earth. What an amazing thing to think about!
It makes me wonder what all could lie below the surface, just waiting to be discovered.
Although there have been no probes sent to Europa, I know that scientists are planning to
send some in the future. In Richard Greenbergs book Unmasking Europa, he talks about a
submarine robot called the DEPTHX. It has been tested in a limestone cave called Cenote
Zacaton in Mexico, and could very well be used to explore the deep ocean on Europa.
Technology like that would be perfect for both collecting data, as well as giving us here on earth
video images of what the probe is actually seeing. I think that it would be amazing to see actual
footage of the probe swimming around underneath the surface, and maybe even see glimpses of
organisms that could possibly live there. I hope that when we are finally able to send probes to
Europa, we can obtain samples of both the surface and the ocean below, thus being able to gain
more information about possible life. In the end of the Movie Europa Report, tremendous
discoveries about Europas surface as well as its ocean are made by the astronauts that went.
Even though this is a Sci-Fi movie, and it would be dangerous for us to send humans with the
probes, I hope that one day we will be able to do just that, and finally be able to unlock the
secrets that Europa has been hiding from us for so long.

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