How long would a signal take to get from Europa to Earth approximately??

Question

this is for a school project, so I'd like an answer fast, its due 2moro
ill keep searching the internet though
thanx

Answer 1

About 43 minutes. Jupiter is 778,330,000 km from the Sun and light travels 300,000 km/s, so it would take 2,594 seconds for light to travel that far. Europa orbits pretty close to Jupiter. Also, Jupiter is sometimes closer to and sometimes farther from the Earth than it is from the Sun, so 43 minutes is an average.

Answer 2

If you click on the link below, you will see that the Earth is on the opposite side of the Sun as Jupiter. Therefore, Jupiter is almost at its maximum distance from Earth.

The current distance from Earth is 6.267 AU's (Astronomical Units). 1 AU is the distance of Earth from the Sun (93 Million Miles), so to compute the current distance, take 6.267 AU's x 93 Million, giving a total of 582,831,000 miles from earth.

At the speed of light (186,214 miles per second), a signal to Jupiter would take 3,129 seconds, or 52.16 minutes. Since Europa orbits Jupiter, that would be the average timne it would take today. In 8 months, that number would change to a lower number because we would be on the same side of the Solar System as Jupiter. (8 months allows for the movement of Jupiter and the Earth combined...)

Good Luck!
Mack

Answer 3

Between 40 and 60 minutes depending on where each one is in it's orbit.