Astronomers create the first global temperature map of Europa

Astronomers created the first global thermal map of Jupiter's iced Europa moon using images taken with the ALMA observatory in Chile. The new series of four images of Europa has a resolution of about 200 km, sufficient to study the relationship between thermal surface variations and the main geological features of the moon. The research, published in the Astronomical Journal, compared the new observations of Europe's Atacama Large Multimeter / Submillimeter (ALMA) to a thermal model based on observations of the Galileo space shuttle.

This comparison allowed researchers to badyze temperature variations in the data and build the world's first global map of Europa's thermal characteristics. The new data also revealed an enigmatic cold spot in the northern hemisphere of Europa. "These ALMA images are really interesting because they provide the first global map of thermal emissions in Europe," said Samantha Trumbo, scientist in planetary sciences at the California Institute of Technology in the United States.

"Since Europa, the ocean world is potentially geological, the activity, its surface temperatures are of great interest because they can limit the location and extent of such activity," said Trumbo. The Europa has fractured and fractured chaotic terrain, suggesting a long history of geological activity. Evidence strongly suggests that under its thin layer of ice, Europa has an ocean of brackish water in contact with a rocky core.

Europa also has a relatively young surface, only 20 to 180 million years old, which indicates thermal or geological processes not yet identified at work. Unlike optical telescopes, which can only detect sunlight reflected by planetary bodies, radio and millimeter-wave telescopes like ALMA detect the thermal "glow" naturally emitted by even the coldest objects in our solar system, including comets, asteroids and moons. 19659002] At its hottest point, the surface temperature of the Europa never exceeds less than 160 degrees Celsius, researchers said. "The study of Europa's thermal properties provides a unique way to understand its surface," said Bryan Butler, astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory of New Mexico.