Key facts
- Scale fact
- 3,100 kmdiameter
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Water ice, silicate rock, probable salty ocean
- Temperature
- ~102 K mean surface
Europa
3,100 kmdiameter
Visual creditJuno 2022 / NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill / CC BY 2.0Source: Wikimedia Commons
Details
Europa is Jupiter's smallest Galilean moon and one of the Solar System's most compelling icy worlds. Its bright water-ice crust is crossed by long fractures, while spacecraft data strongly suggest a salty ocean hidden beneath the surface.
Europa’s sparse craters, crossing ridges and disrupted blocks show that its ice shell has been reworked. Measurements from Galileo detected an induced magnetic response best explained by an electrically conducting layer, making a global salty ocean the leading interpretation.
Orbital resonance with Io and Ganymede keeps Europa’s path slightly eccentric, allowing Jupiter’s gravity to flex and heat the moon. That energy could support water–rock reactions below, but neither the ocean’s detailed conditions nor life has been directly detected.
Links
- Universe journey
- Asteroid belt & Jupiter
- Wikipedia
- Europa on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Europa on the scale
Sources
References for Europa
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Europa — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Juno 2022 / NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill, CC BY 2.0)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.