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Exploring Europa

Exploring Europa. What is under its ice-covered plains?. What you would have seen in a small telescope about 5AM this morning.

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Exploring Europa

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  1. Exploring Europa What is under its ice-covered plains?

  2. What you would have seen in a small telescope about 5AM this morning

  3. Last time we saw that Europa is slightly smaller and less massive than our Moon. It is of interest because the entire moon is encased in ice. There are cracks and other features that hint at liquid water at some point below the surface,

  4. The Galilean satellites of Jupiter (cont)

  5. Views of the cracks from Galileo Picture about 100 miles on a side

  6. A related phenomenon. The ice rafts of Europa Similar features seen in arctic ocean and are due to flows of ocean underneath

  7. Evidence for flows from beneath the surface of Europa

  8. There is evidence (circumstantial) for liquid water under the surface, but how far down is it? What is below the water?

  9. Speculations on interior structure of Europa

  10. A future Europa Lander could tell us much about the possible subsurface ocean of Europa

  11. Speculations on Europa of 4.5 Gyr ago

  12. Another vision of a once-and-future Europa

  13. A summary of what we know about Europa • Slightly smaller in mass and diameter than the Moon • Surface covered with water ice casing • Evidence for surface “activity” from cracks and grooves, and ice rafts • Small numbers of craters implies surface has reformed in last 10 million years • Estimates that liquid layer, “sealed ocean” is between 10 - 50 kilometers below the surface, with possible rocky sea floor

  14. The next step in exploration of Jupiter: the Juno spacecraft mission Launch: August 2011, arrival at Jupiter: July 2016

  15. Io … world of rapid changes Distance from Jupiter = 422 thousand kilometers, diameter = 3640 km

  16. Io Comparisons between Voyager (late 70s) and Galileo (mid 90s) showed geographical changes on Io (see figure 14.11)

  17. Changes on Io: 1979-1999

  18. The lesson from study of the Galilean satellites: the primary geophysical process is tidal flexing or squeezing due to the strong tides of Jupiter. The tides aren’t strong enough to disrupt these satellites, but they do control their geology

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