Featured planetary moon
Europa
An ice-covered ocean world shaped by Jupiter’s tides.
Europa’s bright fractured shell hides a deeper story. Evidence supports a global salty ocean beneath the ice, while tidal flexing provides an energy source that keeps the interior from becoming a completely frozen relic.
- Orbit representation
- Representative mean elements
- Surface
- derived map
Reference measurements
The numbers that shape this world
- Mean radius
- 1,560.8 km
- Mean orbital distance
- 671,100 kmSemi-major axis around the parent body.
- Orbital period
- 3.525 days
- Eccentricity
- 0.009
- Inclination
- 0.5°Local Laplace plane from the JPL pole
- Rotation
- Tidally locked
World portrait
A surface that records motion below
Ridges, bands and disrupted terrain make Europa’s surface a map of stress. Helios keeps the visual representation distinct from the orbital model and its stated precision.
System geometry
Europa in motion around Jupiter
Europa travels at a mean orbital distance of 671,100 km and completes a circuit in 3.525 days. Its eccentricity of 0.009 and 0.5° inclination are read against Local Laplace plane from the JPL pole. Synchronous rotation keeps the same hemisphere broadly oriented toward the parent body.
Representation notes
What Explore is showing
JPL fitted mean elements describe general orbit shape and orientation; they are not an accurate ephemeris.
Reviewed official global map prepared as a 1K display texture. Small no-data seams were cleaned without inventing large-scale landmarks; final seam, pole and lighting review remains device-dependent.
Provenance