EP4- 390 million miles from Earth, lurks the icy Galilean moon, Europa. \r
But what would it be like to stand on the frozen surface of Europa? \r
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Script-\r
This frozen natural satellite is one of 67 known moons that orbit around the mighty planet Jupiter and below its thick icy crust, scientists believe a vast ocean flows. Scientists also believe that Europa is the most likely place within our solar system beyond our own planet, to have life living within its vast ocean, making it a an extremely interesting moon. So if one day in the future, humans have developed the technology that will allow us to travel and descend on to the frozen surface of Europa, what will it be like?\r
Europa is one of the smoothest objects in the solar system and this is because of its icy tectonic plates, moving on top of a warmer layer of convective ice, resulting in the surface being constantly recycled. This means that when the space explorers step out side on to Europas frigid landscape for the first time, they probably wouldnt see huge ancient craters or towering mountains, instead they would see many cracks and ridges, some more than 12 miles wide crisscrossing though the thick Icy crust.\r
It has also been theorised that Europas equator is covered by countless 10 metre high icy spikes called penitentes, which are caused by the effect of direct overhead sunlight melting the vertical cracks on the moons surface. The astronauts would need a special suit as Europa is no place for human beings, the blistering surface temperature of this frigid moon can be as low as -220 degrees Celsius depending on were they landed. Also the radiation levels that Jupiter emits would cause severe illness or death if the astronaut was exposed for even a single day. Europas thin atmosphere is composed solely of oxygen, that is maintained by charged particles hitting the cold Icy surface and producing water vapour, however it would be far to tenuous for the exploring humans to breath. The astronauts would feel much lighter, as the gravity on Europa is around 13 percent of Earths, making it feel like they were walking on the surface of our own neighbouring Moon. Because of Europas weak gravity and thin atmosphere, the exploring astronauts wouldnt experience any weather events, like wind or rain, instead it would be calm, however the explorers might have to withstand some small Ice quakes or dodge giant water plumes shooting out of the icy crust. Looking up in to the sky, the astronauts would mainly see the cold, vastness of space, but they would get the most spectacular view of Jupiter, which would look 24 times larger than our moon appears from Earths surface. Scientist believe that Europa has many more incredible surface features, that hopefully will be discovered or confirmed when NASA has captured more images of the mysterious moon in the future. But, what makes Europa one of most interesting, important and exciting celestial body in the solar system, is that lurking within its deep oceans could be alien life. Which if discovered, would prove that life can independently pop up anywhere in this galaxy that we call, the Milky Way. \r
Attributes-\r
Europa-Dag@bert (vimeo)\r
Water Vapor Plumes on Europa-ESA\r
Europa_ Beyond Planet Earth Video Contest - AMNH\r
Alien Spaceship Sulaco VFX fly Animation on green screen\r
Music - Crypto - Incompetech\r
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) \r
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0\r