1/1/2024 0 Comments Io moon surface![]() ![]() Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD) NamesakeĮuropa is named for a woman who, in Greek mythology, was abducted by the god Zeus – Jupiter in Roman mythology.Ī 3D model of Jupiter's moon Europa, an icy moon with a hidden subsurface ocean. Scientists could then study the material’s composition to determine whether Europa’s ocean might be hospitable for some form of life. As the ice shell distorts and flexes from tidal forces, warmer and less-dense ice would rise, carrying the ocean samples to the surface where a spacecraft could analyze it remotely, using infrared and ultraviolet instruments, among others. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft performed this feat at Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which is known to have an ocean spraying into space.Įven if Europa isn’t ejecting samples into space, a 2018 study concluded that samples of Europa’s ocean could get frozen into the base of the moon’s ice shell, where the ice makes contact with the ocean. If the plumes do exist, and if their source is linked to Europa’s ocean, then a spacecraft could travel through the plume to sample and analyze it from orbit, and it would essentially be analyzing the moon’s ocean. The team measured the vapor using a spectrograph at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii that measures the chemical composition of planetary atmospheres through the infrared light they emit or absorb. In November 2019, an international research team led by NASA announced it had directly detected water vapor for the first time above Europa’s surface. While no plumes were observed while the Galileo spacecraft was in the Jupiter system in the 1990s, more recent observations from telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as a reanalysis of some data from the Galileo spacecraft, have suggested that it is possible that thin plumes of water are being ejected 100 miles (160 kilometers) above Europa’s surface. ![]() Europa’s ocean is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to look for life beyond Earth. So while Europa is only one-fourth the diameter of Earth, its ocean may contain twice as much water as Earth’s global ocean. Scientists think Europa’s ice shell is 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick, floating on an ocean 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 kilometers) deep. Based on Europa's icy composition, scientists think the most likely material to create this magnetic signature is a global ocean of salty water. This measurement strongly implied that a special type of magnetic field is being created (induced) within Europa by a deep layer of some electrically conductive fluid beneath the surface. One of the most important discoveries made by Galileo showed how Jupiter's magnetic field was disrupted in the space around Europa. In all, the spacecraft made a total of 12 close flybys of the icy moon. The information about Europa that Galileo sent was so intriguing that the mission was extended for a two-year follow-on journey, known as the Galileo Europa mission. Galileo's primary mission included observations of each of the four Galilean moons during repeated flybys. The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa looms large in this view made from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. These cracks had separated, and dark, icy material appeared to have flowed into the opened gaps, suggesting that the surface had been active at some time in the past. In other words, Europa has a very smooth surface, relative to the other icy moons.Įven though the Voyagers did not pass extremely close to Europa, their images were of high enough quality that researchers noted some of the dark bands had opposite sides that matched each other extremely well, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Images from the two Voyagers revealed a surface brighter than that of Earth's moon, crisscrossed with numerous bands and ridges, and with a surprising lack of large impact craters, tall cliffs, or mountains. The spacecraft snapped a full global image of Europa from a distance of about 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers).Ī few months later, Voyager 2 had its closest encounter with Europa on July 9, 1979. Voyager 1's closest approach to Jupiter occurred on March 4, 1979. This picture of Europa was taken on March 4, 1979, from a distance of about 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers) by NASA's Voyager 1. ![]()
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