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^{James Reimer's Europa Page}

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What's Europa?

    Europa is a moon of Jupiter. One of the Galilean ones, in fact, meaning it was discovered by Galileo Galilei and Marius (along with moons Ganymede, Io, and Callisto) in 1610. 

    Well, most of the time, where there's ice there's water, and the fact is that Europa has a good chance of this being the case. On earth, humans have discovered creatures existing farther under the sea than light can penetrate, and living on the heat and minerals spewed from volcanic vents. There could be such vents under Europa's ice, creating a liquid water layer beneath the crust, and being kept liquid by tidally generated heat. A moon of Saturn, Enceladus, is very similar to Europa, and geysers have been witness, erupting from it's icy surface. Ah, I almost forgot: life or no life, there's lots of ice on this moon, and H₂O is one of the best forms of propellent humans know of.

     Actually, in a way it does. You see, in Greek mythology, Europa was the Daughter of Agenor, the King of Tyre. Zeus was attracted to her by her great beauty, so he turned into a white bull, and met her by the seashore where she was picking flowers. She was amazed by the tameness of the large animal, and when it kneeled before her, she climbed onto it's back. The bull rose and ran across the sea, to the Isle of Crete, where Zeus revealed himself. She eventually bore Zeus three sons, and was known by the Cretins from then on as the Goddess of Fertility. This name was passed on both to Europe and Europa, though for Europa it seems all but true.