JOURNAL: By Jove, it's Jupiter! (Pt. 3)

As I promised in my last note, we will take a closer look at Europa now.

One of Jupiter's many moons, Europa, was discovered in 1610 by Galileo. (Interestingly, as I write this note, a CNN article has just reported that his two missing fingers have been found in a jar...Galileo has been made whole again and now can rest in peace, I guess.) Europa is the smallest of the 4 Galilean moons, roughly a bit smaller than Earth's moon. As I pointed out in one of my earlier notes, some researchers believe Europa is our best bet to find extraterrestial life due to what they believe to be a deep ocean on its surface.

Europa is sometimes referred to as Jupiter II and was named after the mythological Phoenician woman Europa. She was daughter of the King of Ancient Tyre. This is the same Tyre that centuries later, Ezekiel, the Biblical prophet of the Lord, prophesied against. Moreover, some Biblical scholars believe that the Lord's prophetic warning to the King of Tyre was also aimed at sending a message to Satan (see vv. 12-18 in Ezekiel 28). And since we are on the topic of Tyre (a city in modern day Lebanon, which happens to figure into the Biblically prophetic Psalm 83 war), Hiram Abiff, a central figure in Masonic literature and tradition hailed from Tyre. Needless to say, Tyre seems to be a rather interesting place rich in history.

Anyway, getting back on track, what I found most fascinating about the legend of Europa was the fact that she was abducted by Zeus, who changed himself into a white bull (the same bull as the constellation Taurus) and made her his wife. This is fascinating because the European Union uses this imagery, the woman riding the beast as their "trademark" so to speak, which makes sense since Europe was named after Europa. In fact, the official website of the EU is named Europa, which begs the question, who or what is represented by the beast (aka Zeus)??? Does this remind anyone else of Revelation 17 - the woman riding on the beast?

Finally, in closing, it is interesting to note that at the same time that Jupiter's moon Europa is taking on more significance as a possible habitation for extraterrestial life, its namesake, the European Union is taking on more influence as a world power. I'm not sure what this means, if anything, but it is at the very least an interesting coincidence!

JOURNAL: By Jove, it's Jupiter! (Pt. 2)

In my last note I promised that I would share a few quick facts about Jupiter and its moon Europa. So, I did a little digging to find out more about them but unfortunately I only made it as far as the planet Jupiter. Europa will have to wait. But without further adieu, here is what I have managed to find out about Jupiter.

Jupiter is the 5th planet from our Sun and is the largest planet in our Solar System. It was named after the Roman god...you guessed it, Jupiter. I'm assuming the Romans gave it that name since it was the biggest planet and their god Jupiter was the king of the gods, aka the god of sky and thunder. According to Mythindex.com, the Romans believed that Jupiter,

"determined the course of all earthly and human affairs: he foresaw the future, and the events happening in it were the results of his will. He revealed the future to man through signs in the heavens and the flight of birds..."

This being the case they saw Jupiter as their protector and guide. He also happened to be the grandfather of Romulus and Remus...yes, the same Romulus that killed Remus and founded Rome. And since we are on the topic of his family, you may be familiar with some of his family members: His father was Saturn, his wife/sister was Juno, his sons were Mercury and Mars, and his brothers were Neptune and Pluto.

You may also recognize some of the other names given to Jupiter throughout history.

Going back to Babylonian times, the Babylon equivalent was the god Marduk. Some believe that Marduk is associated with the legendary Nimrod, who we read about in Genesis 10. Interestingly enough, Marduk had a pet dragon/serpent/snake...hmm, who do we know that fits all those characteristics? If you're not sure who it, here is a hint.

Moving on we come to the Greek god equivalent, someone we have all heard of - the great and mighty Zeus. An altar was built to Zeus in Pergamum (modern day Turkey) in the 2nd century b.c. And by the A.D. 90's John the Revelator's message to the church at Pergamum associated the city as the place of Satan's throne (Revelation 2). Could this be a coincidence?? On an interesting note, some have pointed out that the temple that was constructed for President Obama's acceptance speech in Denver was modeled after this Great Altar of Zeus.

Finally, we end our mini-journey through history with the germanic god equivalent, someone that avid comic book readers would be familiar with, the viking god of thunder, Thor. By the way, if you have ever wondered where we came up with the name Thursday, we have Thor to thank for it (Thor's day). No kidding!

Now with a little more background on Jupiter we can move on to finding out about Europa in my next note...

UPDATE(S):

11/27/09: Today I came across an article about another holiday act of terror (this time Thanksgiving instead of Christmas) that occurred in Jupiter, Florida of all places??!!? A relative shot four people, including a child, yesterday during a Thanksgiving get together. You may remember last Christmas when a disgruntled husband dressed like Santa and went to his in-laws house and started killing people, including shooting a young girl in the face. In all seriousness, these families will probably never celebrate these respective holidays the same way again. What are these "assaults on the holidays" all about?

JOURNAL: By Jove, it's Jupiter! (Pt. 1)

Have you ever experienced this phenomenon: You hear about something that you are unfamiliar with - maybe a word or a concept - and then over the next several days it seems like you keep running into it. Well, that happens to me quite often. The most recent was with the planet Jupiter.

It all started with my interest in wanting to find out more about 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. These science fiction films were made in 1968 and 1984 respectively.

Now although I have never seen these movies before, all my information about them has come from the "all-knowing" wikipedia website. So with that disclaimer being said, in the first movie a group of astronauts make an unsuccessful mission to Jupiter aboard the Discovery One Spaceship. The whole crew dies except for one, Dave Bowman, who comes across a black monolithic structure which turns him into a "fetus-like" being. I know - a little strange - but it is what it is. In the film's sequel, 9 years has passed and a new group of astronauts go in search of the missing spacecraft and its crew. They find Dave Bowman, who has been turned into an incorporeal being. Bowman warns them to leave the area quickly. The new crew also finds out that the black monolith is actually alien made and apparently it begins to multiply on Jupiter's surface at an exponential rate eventually engulfing Jupiter and causing it to explode into a small star. While Jupiter is in melt down mode, the crew tries to escape the area and they hear a message from an alien intelligence telling them that all the planets are theirs except Europa, Jupiter's moon. We then see icy Europa transform into a lush jungle. Finally, as the film comes to a close, it pans over the jungle and settles in on a black monolith which is standing alone waiting for intelligent life forms to evolve.

The next morning on my way to work while I was listening to the news on KTAR, the morning show anchors were bantering back and forth about Jupiter and its moon, Europa. What? Are you kidding, out of all the millions of things to joke about on a morning talk radio show they pick something that I was just reading about the previous day.

Later that day, while I was trying to find articles about the recent discovery of water on Earth's Moon, I came across an article on the National Geographic website entitled Could Jupiter Moon Harbor Fish-Size Life?. In the article, Richard Greenberg from the University of Arizona claims that there is so much oxygen in Europa's global ocean that "[t]hat amount of oxygen would be enough to support more than just microscopic life-forms: At least three million tons of fishlike creatures could theoretically live and breathe on Europa..." Of course we won't be able to confirm that claim until NASA develops the technology to successfully study Europa in-depth.

So what's so significant about Jupiter and Europa? Good question, I have no idea. But in my next note, I will share a few quick facts about them.

UPDATE:

• 
  
  How Realistic Was Arthur C. Clarke's 2010? [Source: Space.com, January 8, 2010]
• 
  
  Pictured: spectacular moment space missile smashes into Jupiter [Source: Telegraph, June 5, 2010]
• 
  
  First results on impact of large celestial body on Jupiter [Source: Daily News & Analysis, May 21, 2010]:
  

  An amateur Australian astronomer came across the presence of a large, black spot close to the polar region of the planet Jupiter, the biggest in the Solar System, on July 19, 2009. The impact had taken place at a very high latitude close to the planet's South Pole barely 3 or 4 hours before the spot was seen on Jupiter's dark side (at night), and this prevented it from being observed directly.

  [Now] The results of the research, conducted by Planetary Sciences Group at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country with its headquarters at the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao and led by professor Agustín Sánchez Lavega, have appeared in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

  Jupiter loses one of its stripes and scientists are stumped as to why [Source: Mail Online, May 17, 2010]:

Jupiter has lost one of its iconic red stripes and scientists are baffled as to why.The largest planet in our solar system is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere, with one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.However, the most recent images taken by amateur astronomers have revealed the lower stripe known as the Southern Equatorial Belt has disappeared leaving the southern half of the planet looking unusually bare.The band was present in at the end of last year before Jupiter ducked behind the Sun on its orbit. However, when it emerged three months later the belt had disappeared. Update: Hubble Finds Jupiter’s Missing Stripe [Source: Wired.com, June 16, 2010].