Europa (moon)

Europa (ew-roe'-pa, /ju'ro:pa/ {{Audio|en-Europa.ogg|listen}}, Greek Ευρώπη) is a moon of the planet Jupiter, smallest of the four Galilean moons. It is named after Europa, one of Zeus's many love interests in Greek mythology, after whom the continent of Europe is also named.

Europa in popular culture

• Europa plays a very important role in the film and book of Arthur C. Clarke's ' and its sequel. Super-advanced aliens take an interest in the primitive life forms living under Europa's ice and transform Jupiter into a sun to kick-start their evolution. In ', Europa has become a tropical ocean world.
• In Greg Bear's novel The Forge of God (1987), Europa is destroyed by aliens who use chunks of its ice to terraform planets.
• In the video game Infantry, large cities lie underneath the ice sheets of Europa.
• In the video game Battlezone, Europa is featured as a cold, ice covered world, where battles take place in cracks between the ice.
• The computer game ' involves an underwater base in Europa's ocean.
• The online script serial Banana Chan features Europa as a destination for Space Tourists in its 12th episode.
• In Europa Strike by Ian Douglas, a massive ancient alien spacecraft lies in an ocean beneath the moon's surface, the discovery of which leads to a battle between Chinese forces and US Marines in 2067.
• In the Futurama episode "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", Fry is maimed in a hover car accident on Europa while on a picnic with then-girlfriend Amy Wong and Dr. Zoidberg.
• In the anime Cowboy Bebop, the crew of the Bebop is stranded on Europa, after being involved in a hit and run accident. Europa is portrayed as a backwoods planet with little colonization.
• In the James Cameron IMAX film Aliens of the Deep, the idea of an underwater alien culture living beneath the surface of Europa is explored.