Starship Asterisk*

stephinity wrote:ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS—EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.

TNT wrote:At least we know now that if we ever run out of water on Earth we can look to Europa for help!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_%28mythology%29 wrote:

<<In Greek mythology Europa (Greek Ευρώπη) was a Phoenician woman of high lineage, from whom the name of the continent Europe has ultimately been taken. The name Europa occurs in Hesiod's long list of daughters of primordial Oceanus and Tethys. The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a white bull was a Cretan story; as Kerényi points out "most of the love-stories concerning Zeus originated from more ancient tales describing his marriages with goddesses. This can especially be said of the story of Europa".

The etymology of her Greek name (ευρυ- "wide" or "broad" + οπ– "eye(s)" or "face") suggests that Europa as a goddess represented the lunar cow, at least on some symbolic level. Metaphorically, at a later date her name could be construed as the intelligent or open-minded, analogous to glaukopis (γλαυκώπις) attributed to Athena. However, Ernest Klein suggests a possible Semitic origin in Akkadian erebu "to go down, set" (in reference to the sun) which would parallel occident.

In the territory of Phoenician Sidon, Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD) was informed that the temple of Astarte, whom Lucian equated with the moon goddess, was sacred to Europa: "There is likewise in Phœnicia a temple of great size owned by the Sidonians. They call it the temple of Astarte. I hold this Astarte to be no other than the moon-goddess. But according to the story of one of the priests this temple is sacred to Europa, the sister of Cadmus. She was the daughter of Agenor, and on her disappearance from Earth the Phœnicians honoured her with a temple and told a sacred legend about her; how that Zeus was enamoured of her for her beauty, and changing his form into that of a bull carried her off into Crete. This legend I heard from other Phœnicians as well; and the coinage current among the Sidonians bears upon it the effigy of Europa sitting upon a bull, none other than Zeus. Thus they do not agree that the temple in question is sacred to Europa."

The paradox, as it seemed to Lucian, would be solved if Europa is Astarte in her guise as the full, "broad-faced" moon.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52_Europa wrote:

<<52 Europa is one of the larger asteroids in the asteroid belt, having a diameter of 300 km. It was discovered on February 4, 1858, by Hermann Goldschmidt from his balcony in Paris. It is named after Europa, one of Zeus's conquests in Greek mythology, a name it shares with Jupiter's moon Europa.

Europa is approximately the seventh largest asteroid by volume. However, it has a low density (i.e. is highly porous), presumably through having suffered a particularly severe collision. In 2001, Michalak estimated Europa to have a mass of (5.2±1.8)×10¹⁹ kg. In 2007, James Baer and Steven R. Chesley estimated Europa to have a mass of (1.9±0.4)×10¹⁹ kg. A more recent estimate by Baer suggests it has a mass of 1.65×10¹⁹ kg.

Europa is a very dark carbonaceous C-type, and is the fourth largest of this group. Spectroscopic studies have found evidence of olivines and pyroxenes on the surface,and there is some indication that there may be compositional differences between different regions. It orbits close to the Hygiea asteroid family, but is not a member. Lightcurve data for Europa has been particularly tricky to interpret, so much so that for a long time its period of rotation was in dispute (ranging from 5 and a half hours to 11 hours), despite numerous observations. It has now been determined that Europa is a prograde rotator, but the exact direction in which its pole points remains ambiguous. The most detailed analysis indicates that it points either towards about ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (70°, 55°) or (40°, 255°). This gives an axial tilt of about 14° or 54°, respectively.>>