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Brazil is the largest country in South America by a considerable distance. It is home to a melting pot of indigenous cultures that live both around its major cities and within its vast portion of the Amazon rainforest. One common question surrounding Brazil is, is it bigger than Jupiter’s moon, Europa?
Brazil is a good deal smaller than Jupiter’s moon Europa when landmass is considered, coming in at around 8.5 million square kilometers, whereas Europa has 30.9 million square kilometers of land. Brazil has a population of 216 million people, whereas Europa is a moon covered in a thick blanket of ice and in regards to cubic volume Europa is far bigger at 15.9 billion kilometers compared to Brazil’s 340 million cubic kilometers.
This article will discuss whether or not Brazil is bigger than Europa. So keep reading! We have everything you need to know about the size of Brazil and whether or not it is as large as Europa.
How Big Is Brazil?
Table of Contents
Brazil, officially known as the Federative Republic of Brazil, is a country situated in South America. However, it makes up around half of the continent’s total landmass. It is the fifth largest country in the world, only beaten by the United States, Russia, Canada, and China.
Brazil stretches for roughly 4, 350 kilometers from north to south and around 4,395 kilometers from east to west, giving its circumference a total landmass of around 8.5 million square kilometers. Within this landmass of Brazil, there are approximately 216 million people, which makes it the 6th most populated country in the world.
Brazil is so large that it covers 7,400 kilometers of the Atlantic coastline, sharing over 15,000 kilometers of inland borders with just about every South American country besides Ecuador and Chile. They border Uruguay to their South, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina to their South West.
Peru lies to the West of Brazil, while Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana lie to its immediate north. The total shape of Brazil forms an enormous irregular triangle that includes a huge amount of the Amazon rainforest, subtropical landscapes, savanna, wetlands, and mountainous regions.
Brazil is so large it is estimated that it makes up almost 50% of the total landmass of South America, the fourth largest continent on earth. It’s so large, in fact, that it has four separate time zones throughout the nation and is home to the second-largest river in the world, the Amazon River.
If we are to assume that the average thickness of the land on Brazil is roughly 40km, this would lead to Brazil’s overall cubic volume reaching a relatively high number of 340 million cubic kilometers.
How Big Is Europa?
Europa is a moon that orbits Jupiter and is the smallest of four Galilean moons to do so. It’s the sixth closest to Jupiter out of an astonishing 80 known moons and is the sixth largest moon in our solar system.
Europa was first discovered by the renowned Galileo Galilei back in 1610 and was named Europa in honor of the Phonecian mother of a mythological king of Crete named Minos. Europa was also supposedly the lover of Zeus, who himself was the Greek equivalent of the Roman deity Jupiter.
While Europa is only around 90% the size of earth’s moon, that still makes it a whopping 30, 900,000 kilometers squared. Europa has a diameter of 3,100 kilometers, and the majority of the planet is covered in a thick ice sheet that is up to 25 kilometers thick in place.
The total volume of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, is around 15.9 billion square cubic kilometers, and while this may sound like a huge number, it’s only around 0.015% of Earth’s volume, which comes in at approximately 1 Trillion cubic kilometers.
While Europa is but a fraction of the size of earth, it has been suggested by scientists that it could have twice as much water. Various researchers have even suggested that the vast and rich oceans of Europa may be the most promising place in our solar system to look for life.
So, Is Brazil Bigger Than Europa?
So, if we compare Brazil’s north-to-south measurement of 4,350 kilometers and its east-to-west measurement of 4,395, giving it a total surface area of 8.5 million square kilometers, it is not matched for Europa’s diameter of 3,130 square km and its enormous surface area of 30.9 million square kilometers.
As Brazil is but one country making up a portion of one continent on earth, it’s impressive to see how large it truly is in comparison to a moving moon in our solar system. Brazil has one of the largest populations on earth, with around 217 million people, and is considered the fifth largest country on earth.
When comparing Brazil’s 8.5 million square kilometers to Europa’s 30.9 million square kilometers, we can see that Jupiter’s moon is around four times larger than the country of Brazil. Which, in retrospect, makes Brazil look extremely large for a single country.
So, while Brazil is not as large as Europa, it’s clearly one of the largest countries in the world.
References
https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Geography/Land-area/Sq.-km
https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil
https://www.britannica.com/place/Europe
