1# Europa, a Moon of Jupiter (Synthesis)
Jupiter has 79 discovered moons, as of 2018 (there’s probably more), and Europa is one of them (79 Moons of Jupiter and Counting, 2018). Europa is a icy moon, with a global ocean underneath it’s surface and, recently, plumes of what looks like water vapor, that could hint at life (Chang, 2018). The moon is judged to be 4,5 billion years old, matching Jupiters age.
Europa is a Greek name meaning “wide face”. In Greek mythology, Europa is a princess who was, get this, kidnapped by Zeus as a bull. How messed up is that? Europa is the Latinised version of “Europe” (Ευρωπη), which is ευρυς (eurys) “wide” and ωψ (ops) “face, eye” (Behind the Name, 2017).
She was a Phoenician princess, kidnapped by Zeus (who can’t keep it in his pants) during a cunning scheme and sent to Crete where she later became the first queen of Crete (Europa and the Bull: the Significance of the Myth in Modern Europe, 2011). She was raped and impregnated by Zeus (That S.O. a B.) which later caused her to give birth to Minos, we all know about him. Yike. Anyway, I’m super off track.
Europa is one of the Galilean moons, named such because of their discovery by Galileo Galilei around spring 1610, although Europa was discovered on January 8th, 1610 (Europa, 2018). The four largest moons, Europa, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto were all named Galilean planets in Galileo’s honour (Williams, 2015). Ganymede is larger than Mercury, and the other three larger than Pluto, but Europa is the smallest with a diameter of 1,900 miles or 3,100 kilometres. Europa’s orbital period around Jupiter takes 85 hours which transfers to three and a half earth days, in a nearly circular orbit.
In the 1970s there were a few flybys of Europa, including Pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2 (Howell, 2018). There are apparently a few trips planned, by NASA and the European Space Agency, that have been set to go to Jupiter’s moons in the 2020s. Whether these will actually happen, I don’t know. Probably not.
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/science/jupiter-new-moons.html — 79 Moons
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/science/europa-plumes-water.html?module=inline — Chang
https://www.behindthename.com/name/europa — Behind the name
https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/Europa-and-the-bull-The-significance-of-the-myth-in-modern-Europe — Europa and the Bull
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/ — Europa
https://www.universetoday.com/44796/galilean-moons/ — Williams
