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Credit & Copyright: Kevin Hand
(JPL/Caltech),
Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Howard Perlman (USGS)
Explanation:
How much of
Jupiter's moon Europa is made of water?
A lot, actually.
Based on the
Galileo probe data acquired during its
exploration
of the Jovian system from 1995 to 2003, Europa posses a deep, global
ocean of liquid water beneath a layer of surface ice.
The subsurface ocean
plus ice layer could range from 80 to 170
kilometers in average depth.
Adopting an estimate of 100 kilometers depth, if all the water on Europa
were gathered into a ball it would have a radius of 877 kilometers.
To scale, this intriguing illustration compares that hypothetical ball
of all the water on Europa to the size
of Europa
itself (left) - and similarly to
all the water on planet Earth.
With a volume 2-3 times the volume of water in Earth's oceans,
the global ocean on Europa holds out a
tantalizing
destination
in the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system.
Jack Cook (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), Howard Perlman (USGS)
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Europa - water - life
Publications with words: Europa - water - life
See also: