EUROPA

BY: NICK SINER

Euopa is the sixth of the kwon satellite of Jupiter, it is the 4th largest, and is the second of the Galilean Moons.  Europa was a Phoenician princess abducted to Crete by Zeus. He had  turned himself into a white bull, and called it the mother of Minos. Zeus later re-created the white bull in the stars and created what is known as the constellation Taurus.

It was discovered in 1610 by Galileo and Marius. It is a very bulk planet composition to the terrestrial planets,and is primarily composed of silicate rock. Europa has a thiny outer layer of ice, and Galieo's recent data indicates that Europa has a internal structure made of a small metallic core. But Europa's surface is exceedingly smooth. New features have been seen from more than a few hundred meters high. The markings seem to be only albedo features with very low relief.

There have only been 3 craters that have been found on Europa are over 5km in diameter. This indicates that urface is young and active, but voyagers that mapped europa mapped only a of the surface at high resolution. The excate of Europa is an opne question. Beneath the surface of Euopa's ice layer is another layer of liquid water, estimated to be atleast 50 km deep, it is kept liquid by tidally generated heat. If there happens to be liquid on Europa it would be the only place besides Earth in the solar system where the is significant liquid quantities. The most impressive aspect of Europa is the series of dark streak crisscrossing the entire globe. The larger of the streaks are roughly 20 km across the diffuse outer edges and a central band of lighter materials. It is said that they came from volcanic eruptions or geyers.

Sources:http://www.nineplanets.org/europa.html/http://www.solarviews.com/eng/europa.htm

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