![]() ![]() Heating from below could be the culprit, causing the cooler, dense ice to sink while the warmer less-dense ice rises. ![]() During that time, it spotted pits and domes on Europa’s surface. Galileo explored the Jupiter system from 1995 to 2003. So, while sunlight isn’t a good energy source, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft saw signs of convection occurring in Europa’s ice layer. Jupiter is about 5.2 astronomical units - where 1 AU is the average distance between the Sun and Earth - from the Sun, so any sunlight that reaches Europa is about 25 times fainter than at Earth. Of the main requirements astrobiologists think are necessary for life, Europa is seemingly only lacking an energy source. Recently the Hubble Space Telescope also spotted signs that some of that water may be leaking out into space, meaning it would be possible for a spacecraft to sample Europa’s ocean without ever touching down. If true, that would mean Europa holds twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined on a body only a quarter of our planet’s diameter. Europa’s shell is approximately 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick and beneath it lies an ocean 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 kilometers) deep. Ever since, humanity has imagined countless science fiction scenarios for alien life to be thriving in a Europan ocean.Īnd sci-fi writers aren’t the only ones intrigued by life on this moon. The Voyager spacecrafts flew by Europa in 1979 and scientists got their first hints that the moon’s icy surface might be hiding an ocean of liquid water. The current generated by Io then cuts back to Jupiter and creates lightening in the gas giant’s upper atmosphere.Īll in all, Io is chaotic and although life has been found even in the most inhospitable locations on Earth, most researchers don’t think this moon is unlikely to host any. At an orbit of about 262,000 miles (422,000 kilometers), Io crosses Jupiter’s magnetic field, turning the moon into a giant electric generator. But where the Moon pulls Earth’s tides to highs and lows of about 60 feet (18 meters), Io’s surface is fluctuating by as much as 330 feet (100 meters).īut Io causes just as much trouble for Jupiter. The same effect can be seen on Earth because of the Moon. Nodical the length of time it takes the moon to pass through one of its nodes (where it crosses the plane of the Earths orbit) and return to it: 27 days, 5 hours, 5 minutes, 35.9 seconds. As Io goes about its orbit, the gravitational effects on one side are great than that on the other, this causes the Io’s surface to bulge up and down. This causes the moon to experience tremendous tidal forces. But unlike the Moon which has a mostly circular orbit, Io’s is elliptical. The Moon is similarly tidally locked to Earth. It is tidally locked to Jupiter, meaning that only one side ever faces that planet during its orbit. Io has a combination of Jupiter, Europa and Ganymede and their gravitational tug of war to thank for its high activity.Ī bit larger than the Moon, Io is Jupiter’s third largest moon. Lava fountains, dozens of miles high, erupt from some of them. Io (pronounced “EYE oh”) is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. ![]()
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