Extraterrestrial Cycloids – Why Are They on Europa?

Captions provided by CCTubes – Captioning the Internet! Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Space Telescope Science Institute for supporting this video.

This video is about the cycloid curves on Jupiter’s moon Europa – they’re ridges or valleys in the icy surface that formed due to some sort of geological or tectonic-esque phenomenon. The answer involves ping pong balls, the pacific ring of fire, subduction, tidal bulges, and tailcracking,

REFERENCES

Europa image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/PIA19048_realistic_color_Europa_mosaic.jpg

Europa “google maps” explorere: https://www.mapaplanet.org/explorer-bin/explorer.cgi?map=Europa&layers=europa_galileo_bw&west=180&south=-90&east=-180&north=90&center_lat=0&center=0&defaultcenter=on&grid=none&stretch=none&projection=SIMP&advoption=NO&info=NO&resolution=2

Cycloid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycloid

Formation of Europa cycloid cracks: http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/HIIPS/Publications/hoppa_abstracts/cycloid.html

Smashed ping pong ball: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/222359947_fig2_Ping-pong-balls-are-good-macroscopic-examples-for-shells-as-they-display-the-main

Dented ping pong balls: http://www.katharine-yi.com/uploads/1/8/4/0/18406703/1399540277.png

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Created by Henry Reich