Europa moon

Smallest Galilean moon of Jupiter

"Jupiter II" redirects here. For the spaceship in the 1960s television series Lost in Space, see Jupiter 2.

For the asteroid, see 52 Europa.

Europa, or Jupiter II, is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, and the sixth-closest to the planet of all the 95 known moons of Jupiter.

It is also the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System. Europa was discovered independently by Simon Marius and Galileo Galilei^[2] and was named (by Marius) after Europa, the Phoenician mother of King Minos of Crete and lover of Zeus (the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter).

Is europa habitable

Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is made of silicate rock and has a water-ice crust^[16] and probably an iron–nickel core. It has a very thin atmosphere, composed primarily of oxygen. Its geologically young white-beige surface is striated by light tan cracks and streaks, with very few impact craters.

In addition to Earth-bound telescope observations, Europa has been examined by a succession of space-probe flybys, the first

how far is europa from earth in light years

how far is europa from jupiter in km