NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 20 May 2023: STUNNING view of Jupiter’s Moon Europa
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Jupiter is the second planet in our solar system with the most number of moons at 95! Among these, the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons is Europa which is the sixth closest to the planet. Europa is said to be about 90 percent the size of Earth's Moon! If we were to replace our Moon with Europa, it would have a similar apparent size in the sky, but it would be significantly brighter, NASA explains. This is because Europa's surface is composed of water ice that reflects approximately 5.5 times more sunlight than our Moon does. Interestingly, Europa is a popular destination as it has been visited by several spacecraft and more missions are planned in the future.
Today's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day even brings a stunning view of Europa by Galileo spacecraft. However, t...