Looking for Life on a Jovian Moon By Clark R. Chapman, Ph.D .
Scientists theorize that a thin ice crust is floating on top of liquid water.
Europa is shown at the right. In 1610, with his then-new telescope, Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter. Now the second of these Galilean satellites, Europa, is under scrutiny by a spacecraft named in his honor, NASA's Galileo . Dr. Clark Chapman, an Institute scientist in SwRI's Space Studies Department, located in Boulder, Colorado, since 1977 has been a member of the Imaging Team of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter. A researcher in planetary cratering and in the physical properties of the smaller bodies of the solar system, Chapman is considered one of the nation's experts in the study of asteroids and comets.