Europa
Among the all four Galilean moons orbiting the Jupiter, Europa is considered as the smallest moon and the number six closest among all the 79 known Jupiter moons. Additionally, Europa is the sixth-largest moon in the solar system. Europa was discovered and explored by astronauts called Galileo Galilei in 1610, and he later named the moon after Phoenician mother of King Minos of Lover and Crete of Zeus.
The surface of Europa is covered with layers of ice particles, and as a result, scientists thought that there is an ocean underneath the surface of the moon (Sparks et al., 2017). Furthermore, its icy surface makes the moon the furthermost philosophical planet in the solar system. Using the Telescope, researchers noted a water plume that jets from the south polar region of Europa in 2012. However, after repeated several attempts of research, a different team of scientists confirmed their observations, they also saw superficial plumes in 2014 and 2016.
The pictures and data from the Galileo spacecraft are the observations made by scientists, which made them believe that Europa is a very favorable site for life just like earth. Europa is made of rocky mantles, it has iron cores, and silicate rocks just like the planet does. Unlike the inner part of the earth, the interior portion of Europa is surrounded by a layer of ice and water that covered a vast area. According to NASA, the area covered by water and ice in the interior parts of Europa is about 50km to 170km thick (Jia et al., 2018). Therefore, the presence of ice and water beneath the Europa’s crust makes scientist rank it as one of the best planets which supports life in the solar system.
References
Jia, X., Kivelson, M. G., Khurana, K. K., & Kurth, W. S. (2018). Evidence of a plume on Europa from Galileo magnetic and plasma wave signatures. Nature Astronomy, 2(6), 459-464.
Sparks, W. B., Schmidt, B. E., McGrath, M. A., Hand, K. P., Spencer, J. R., Cracraft, M., & Deustua, S. E. (2017). Active cryovolcanism on Europa?. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 839(2), L18.