Thursday, March 24, 2005 Extraterrestrial Life On Jupiter's
Moon, Europa? Life may bloom in depths of Europa's ocean By John
Nance Jupiter will rise at 7:14 this evening about six degrees
south of due east. Although the eastern sky will be dominated by
the full moon, Jupiter will be its second brightest object, much
brighter than anything else nearby. Look at Jupiter with a small
telescope or good binoculars anytime before 10:48 p.m. and you
will see all four of the moons discovered by Galileo in 1610.
Europa will be about three Jupiter diameters above and to the
right of the planet. In one version of classical myth, Europa
was the daughter of Aegenor, king of Phoenicia. Zeus, who had an
eye for young women, was attracted by her beauty. Taking the
form of a white bull, he abducted her and carried her away from
Phoenicia to Crete. Minos, one of the three sons she bore him
there, later became the island's king. Europa is slightly
smaller than our moon and nearly twice as far from Jupiter as
our moon is from Ear