The moon Europa, which is a unique and enigmatic place – Clarín.com

By Diego Bagú*

A place without equal, unique, where humanity has inn his gaze for a long time. A place with many treasures. It comes to Europe. Not the old continent, but one of the four moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1609, at which time the unforgettable and great Italian pointed to the sky with an instrument invented by a dutchman. Neither more nor less than the telescope. Europe, along with Callisto, Ganymede and Io, make up the four Galilean moons; the four natural satellites larger than several tens of the giant of the Solar system. But of them, without a doubt, Europe is the one that most attracts us, invites us to dream to travel some day to that place. The reason? Contains an invaluable treasure: water in a liquid state. And in huge amount. While this moon is somewhat lower to the ground, all the evidence shows that the amount of liquid water it contains is equal to at least twice the existing in all the oceans of the Earth. Something awesome.

See also: Detect steam near Jupiter and there is hope of finding life

This unsettling place

in our neighborhood star is covered with a crust of ice about a hundred miles and it is believed that below the same there is a vast ocean of liquid water, which opens up more great expectations regarding the possibility of finding some trace of life. The finding of the "feathers of water" in Europe are without a doubt a further step in the intricate and challenging journey to find out the answer to one of our biggest questions as a species: are we alone in the vast sea of cosmic?

* Director of Management of the Planetary City of La Plata.