Description Encounters with Jupiter's moon Europa by the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft indicated that a liquid salty ocean might exist below a layer of surface ice that is up to 10 kilometers thick. An ocean general circulation model developed to study the earth's oceans was used to investigate the tidally-forced ocean circulations on Europa. The orbit of Europa is 'gravity locked' so that the same side of Europa always faces Jupiter as is the case with the earth's moon. The icy surface of Europa heaves up and down 50 meters due to the strong tidal forces. This visualization shows the tempera

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Size: 1536px × 1152px
Photo credit: © Space collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: administration, aeronautics, agency, american, astronomy, europa, exploration, explore, gas, giant, hydrogen, jupiter, largest, moon, nasa, national, planet, planets, science, solar, space, system, technology