Europa, Physics, and UAF

  • Image Credit: Pat Rowlings, JPL
  • Image Credit: David Aguilar, cFa

Europa, Physics and UAF

First discovered in 1610 by Galileo, Europa has recently climbed the list of scientific interest, mainly due to its potential for harboring life. The following articles of this website will discuss some of the history and cause of this theoretical life, as well as some past and future methods of exploring this theory.

First though, a little history and facts about Europa. On January 8th, 1610 Galileo pointed his 20x magnification telescope at Jupiter and discovered four moons: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa. These names, like all Galilean satellites, come from lovers of Zeus.

Europa is slightly smaller than the Earth's moon. Like the moon, Europa is tidal locked, meaning the same side of it always faces the body it orbits (Jupiter). This also means that its orbital and rotational periods are the same, about 85 hours.

About:

This website was created by Justin Long for David Newman's Spring 2015 Physics 212. My interest in the topic of Europa (and especially its magnetic field) comes from a design concept study for which I'm currently a research assistant. This concept study, funded by JPL, is to explore the potential of sending a CubeSat (a small, relatively cheap satellite) with the Clipper mission to explore Europa. My specific task within the study is to research methods and equipment of measuring the magnetic field.

Background image credit: JPL/NASA