Europa+-+AC

Getting Started

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Rubric: [[file:Space Exploration Adventure Rubric.doc]], [[file:Space Exploration Adventure Rubric.pdf]]
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**Europa**
Europa in many ways is like another Earth. Scientists have found patches of ice in many different places on Jupiter’s moon. Scientists think that if the heat of Jupiter is great enough then it may be able to melt the ice and create liquid water. But, Europa’s temperature is too cold to ever be able to support life as we know it.

Europa has created a nickname over the years, freckled Europa. Europa was given this nickname because reddish spot appear on some spots of Europa. These reddish spots can also be called “Lenticulae”, which is Latin for freckles.

The moon Europa is slightly smaller than Earths moon. Just like Earth, Europa has an iron core, a mantle and a surface ocean of water. But on the other hand, Europa’s ocean is deep enough to cover all of the moon itself, but most of it is frozen over because it is so far away from the sun.

Europa’s orbit is every 3.5 days. This is also phase locked. This means that the same side of Europa’s surface is facing Jupiter at all times, just like the Earth. But because Europa is an oval shape, not a circle, when it comes closer to Jupiter its tide becomes much higher than when it was farther away from Jupiter.

Europa was discovered by Galileo Galilei. He made this discovery on January 8,1610. He also discovered 3 other Jovian moons on this same day. But Galileo had been observing Europa the night before on January 7,1610, but didn’t know what it was until the next night.

Visuals Make sure to include the location of your images; add a caption with this information
 * [[image:tmsmawakasci6/ec10_br.jpg width="168" height="128" caption="Much of the hemisphere is covered with reddish-brown material."]] || [[image:tmsmawakasci6/Europa_Freckles_br.jpg width="152" height="98" caption="In this view, which combines images and data taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft during two different orbits around Jupiter, we see reddish spots and shallow pits peppered across the ridged Europan surface. "]] || [[image:http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/485660main1_PIA02590-Europa-226.jpg width="134" height="87" align="bottom" caption="The icy surface of Europa is shown strewn with cracks and ridges."]] || [[image:http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/images/inset-jup_europa1.jpg width="135" height="113" caption="In this movie Europa is seen in a cutaway view through two cycles of its 3.5 day orbit about the giant planet Jupiter." link="@http://photojournal/archive/PIA10149.mov"]] ||
 * [[image:http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/Europa160x120.jpg width="160" height="120" caption="This picture of Europa, the smallest Galilean satellite, was taken in the afternoon of March 4, 1979, from a distance of about 2 million km by Voyager 1. " link="http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?Category=Planets&IM_ID=13346"]] || [[image:http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/circles-rising732.jpg width="153" height="108" caption="This view shows what the concentric circles might look like on Europa if viewed from a low-orbit spacecraft approaching from the east. The arc-shaped trough in the foreground is roughly 300 meters deep"]] || [[image:http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/europacutaway_labl_lg-browse.jpg width="168" height="120" caption="Europa's bizarre surface features suggest an actively churning ice shell above a salty liquid water ocean. This artistic composite illustrates Europa's many different types of surface features and the interior processes that might form them. "]] || [[image:http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery/Europa_impact-browse.jpg width="170" height="151" caption="This feature on Jupiter's moon Europa was seen as a dark, diffuse circular patch on a previous Galileo global image of Europa's leading hemisphere. "]] ||
 * [[image:http://www.solarviews.com/thumb/jup/eurgal6.gif width="150" height="84" align="left" caption="The Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) on the Galileo spacecraft imaged most of Europa, including the north polar regions, at high spectral resolution at a range of 156,000 km (97,500 miles) during the G1 encounter on June 28 1996." link="http://www.solarviews.com/cap/jup/eurgal6.htm"]] || [[image:http://www.solarviews.com/thumb/jup/eurint.jpg caption="The interior characteristics are inferred from gravity field and magnetic field measurements by the Galileo spacecraft."]] ||  ||   ||

**Works Cited** [] [] [|http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/homework-topics-index.html#s] []

**Topic: Research Focus**
 * Europa**
 * Background and discovery on Jupiter's moon Europa.**

**Notes** ==== Include notes, statistics and facts that you will use to write your final paper. You may want to label sections of your notes to help you be more organized as you write. As you take notes from a source, you should list the source citation in the Works Cited section above. ====


 * ~ Europa Statistics ||
 * ~ Discovered by || Simon Marius & Galileo Galilei ||
 * ~ Date of discovery || 1610 ||
 * ~ Mass (kg) || 4.8e+22 ||
 * ~ Mass (Earth = 1) || 8.0321e-03 ||
 * ~ Equatorial radius (km) || 1,569 ||
 * ~ Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) || 2.4600e-01 ||
 * ~ Mean density (gm/cm^3) || 3.01 ||
 * ~ Mean distance from Jupiter (km) || 670,900 ||
 * ~ Rotational period (days) || 3.551181 ||
 * ~ Orbital period (days) || 3.551181 ||
 * ~ Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) || 13.74 ||
 * ~ Orbital eccentricity || 0.009 ||
 * ~ Orbital inclination (degrees) || 0.470 ||
 * ~ Escape velocity (km/sec) || 2.02 ||
 * ~ Visual geometric albedo || 0.64 ||
 * ~ Magnitude (Vo) || 5.29 ||