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Through a series of simulations, NASA has shown how the deformation on Europa's icy surface, one of Jupiter's moons, could carry the basement's water. Ocean up to the surface of the moon.
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This is just one of the many simulated behaviors reported in a new study conducted by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The study is focused on the linear features called "Bands" and "grooves" found in the moons of Europe and Ganymede of Jupiter. Scientists used the same digital model to solve the mysteries of movement in the Earth's crust
This animation shows how the deformation of Europa's icy surface could carry the water of the under -sol from the ocean to the moon's surface. (NASA / JPL)
The animation is a two-dimensional simulation of a possible cross section of a band that crosses the ice cap of Europe. At the lower end is the ocean of Europe, and the thick white line at the top represents ice on the surface of the moon.
The middle section is the largest part of the ice cap of Europe, with warmer colors (red, orange, yellow) which represents a stronger and more rigid ice. The depth is marked on the left side of the animation, while the numbers at the bottom measure the distance from the center of the characteristic band to the surface of Europe.
The bands in Europe and Ganymede are typically tens of miles wide and hundreds of miles long. The numbers at the top mark the pbadage of time in thousands of years.
As the animation progresses, the ice sheet is deformed by gravitational interactions with Jupiter. The cold and brittle ice on the surface separates. At the same time, faults in the upper ice are formed, hardened and reformed (visible as yellow, green and blue diagonals at the top center of the animation).
The restless material that quickly fills half The lowest of the view is a collection of small white dots depicting pieces of the ocean from Europe that have been frozen at the bottom of the ice cap of the Europe (that is, where the liquid ocean is in contact with the frozen shell).
In the document, scientists describe it as a "fossil" oceanic material because the ocean pieces trapped in the ice cap of Europe spend several hundred thousand, if not millions, of millions of dollars. 39 years to go back to the surface.
In other words, when the oceanic material reaches the surface of Europe where it can be badyzed by a pbading spacecraft, it no longer serves as a sample of the ocean from Europe as it is in the present. Instead, the spacecraft would be studying the ocean of Europe like a million years or more ago. Therefore, it is fossils from the ocean.
The NASA Europa Clipper spacecraft is expected to be launched in the early 2020s. The spacecraft will revolve around Jupiter and become the first spacecraft to study. exclusively Europe, including the composition of the lunar surface material.
It is likely that the mission can test the simulated model by previously using an ice penetration radar to explore the bands of the moon. Scientists could then study the composition of the material to determine if the ocean of Europe could be hospitable to some form of life.
With information from NASA.
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