Possibilities of Life on Io and Europa

Possibilities of Life on Io and Europa

Jupiter's moons have always been a slight mystery to the people of Earth; lately it has become an even bigger topic of interest. Ever since we sent a probe to Jupiter and it explored the moons, Io and Europa. Both of these moons have possible means for life.

These two moons were discovered on January 10, 1610 by Galileo Galilei. One night when he was star gazing, he looked at Jupiter and saw four little stars around it. These little stars turned out to orbit Jupiter, therefore they are moons. These four moons were: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These four moons are now known as the four Galilean satellites.

Io is a volcanically active moon. It is extremely cratered and looks something like a melted cheese pizza. Io is actually the most volcanically active moon in our solar system to our knowledge. Io has volcanic plumes up to 190 miles above the surface. Io is a tad larger than Earth's moon and Jupiter's third largest.

Io has a very elliptical, irregular orbit due to Europa and Ganymede disturbing it. Due to this irregular orbit Io has ridiculous tidal forces that cause Io's surface to bulge in and out by as much as 330 feet. If someone were to compare these tidal forces to those which we have on Earth, the person would see that the place where earth's highest tide is only 60 feet. Then they have to remember that that is only in water, Io's tidal forces can happen on solid ground.

These tidal forces produce amazing amounts of heat on Io. These extreme temperatures cause most of Io's sub crust surface to be predominantly liquid-like. The surface is like this, because it is searching for any possible escape route to relieve some of the atmospheric pressure. Also, with the surface as liquid-like as it is, its surface is constantly refilling all impact craters with molten lava. This lava's contents are not exactly discovered yet, but scientists are led to the belief that it contains sulfur and some sorts of silicate rocks. Io like Earth has a layer of atmosphere, yet Io's atmosphere is not as thick as that which we have on Earth. As a matter of fact, Io's atmosphere is extremely thin. Its atmosphere is made of a series of sulfuric dioxides. Unlike all of the other Galilean satellites Io has no known water on it. The data gathered from the Galileo spacecraft shows that Io has its own magnetic field.

Io is an electric generator due to it's crossing of Jupiter's magnetic lines of force. Io can actually produce up to a whopping 400,000 volts of energy across itself. Io's orbit crosses Jupiter's magnetic field lines in such a way that it actually causes lighting in Jupiter's upper atmosphere.

In Io's rotation around Jupiter, it actually doesn't turn. While it rotates around Jupiter, it just keeps the same side facing it the whole time. It's spinning on axis, yet while it is rotating its magnetic fields are positioned in such a way that it simply rips about one ton of material off Io every second. Yet, this really isn't doing much to the moon, because of the molten lava on the surface just simply fills what has been ripped off. While the surface that has been ripped off simply forms a circular cloud of material.

In 1999 the satellite Galileo made two close flybys of the moon, Io. The satellite flew by to study the moon's volcanic activity. Also in 2001, Galileo went flying through the snows of Io. When the spacecraft flew past the north pole of the planet it encountered a large amount of sulfurous snowflakes that were cast into space by a volcano that people did not know of until this moment. Also, Galileo took pictures of a drooping rock face that had traveling eruptions.

Europa, unlike Io, is a cold planet. The moon's crust is completely covered with ice, yet this moon intrigues scientists the most of any of the moons. It does this because of the fact that it probably has a warm layer of slush or even liquid water under its layer of ice. If this is true, that would make it the only place in the solar system, other than Earth, to have life obtaining liquid.

Yet, Europa and Io are also slightly similar to the terrestrial planets in the fact that they are composed of silicate rock. But, Europa is not like all of the other inner solar system planets are that its surface