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Complete new mapping of the radiation that tears the frozen moon of Jupiter Europa reveals where scientists should look – and how deep they have to go – when they are looking for signs of habitability and biosignatures.
Since NASA's Galileo mission a global ocean under Europa's iced shell in the 1990s, scientists have considered that the moon was one of the most promising places in our solar system for look for ingredients to support life. There is even evidence that salt water that slides around the moon's interior is making its way to the surface.
By studying this material from the inside, scientists developing future missions hope to learn more about the livability of the ocean. However, the surface of Europe is bombarded by a constant and intense explosion of radiation from Jupiter. This radiation can destroy or alter the materials transported to the surface, making it more difficult for scientists to know if this really represents the conditions in the ocean of Europe.
While scientists plan Europa's exploration, they are grappling with many unknowns. Is radiation the most intense? How deep are the energy particles? How radiation affects what is on the surface and below – including potential chemical signs, or biosignatures, that could imply the presence of life.
A new scientific study, published in Nature Astronomy, represents the modeling and mapping of radiation at Europa and proposes key pieces for the puzzle. The lead author is Tom Nordheim, a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"If we want to understand what is happening on the surface of Europa and how it relates to the ocean, we must understand radiation," said Nordheim. "When we examine the materials that come from the subsurface, what do we see, does this tell us what is in the ocean, or is that what happened to the materials after that? They were radiated? "
Europa's Galileo flyovers twenty years ago and the electronic measurements of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, Nordheim and his team looked closely at the electrons that were making Explosive the surface of the moon.They found that the radiation doses vary depending on the location.The harder radiation is concentrated in the areas around the equator, and the radiation is getting closer to the poles. 19659002] The zones of hard radiations are in the form of oval regions, connected to the extremities "This is the first prediction of radiation levels at every point on the surface of Europe and it is an important piece of information for future Europa missions," said Chris Paranicas, co-author of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Now scientists know where to find the least radiation-altered regions, which could be crucial information for the Europa Clipper led by the JPL, NASA's mission to steer Jupiter and monitor the # 39, Europe with around 45 flybys nearby. The spacecraft could be launched as early as 2022 and will carry cameras, spectrometers, plasma and radar instruments to study the composition of the moon's surface, its ocean and materials ejected from the surface.
did not stop with a two-dimensional map. He went further, measuring how far the radiation penetrates the surface and building 3D models of the most intense radiation on Europa. The results tell us how deep scientists have to dig or drill, during a possible future Europa landing mission, to find biosignatures that could be retained.
The response ranges from 10 to 20 cm highest radiation zones – up to 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) deep in regions of Europe at mid and high latitudes, to the lunar poles.
To reach this conclusion, Nordheim tested the effect of radiation on amino acids, basic elements for proteins, to understand how Europa's radiation would affect potential biosignatures. Amino acids are among the simplest molecules called potential biosignature, the paper notes.
"The radiation that bombards the surface of Europe leaves a fingerprint," said Kevin Hand, co-author of the new research project and Mission Europa Lander. "If we know what this fingerprint looks like, we can better understand the nature of all organic and possible biosignatures that could be detected with future missions, whether spaceships flying over or landing on Europa."
Mr. Hand, "these are possible orbital routes and the proposed routes cross many parts of Europe with lower radiation levels".
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Twelve new Jupiter moons declared
Washington DC (SPX) July 17, 2018
Twelve new moons in orbit around Jupiter were found – 11 "normal" outer moons, and one they call an "eccentric ball". This brings the total number of known Jupiter moons to 79 – the maximum of any planet in our solar system.
A team led by Scott S. Sheppard of Carnegie spotted the moons for the first time in the spring of 2017 while they were looking for very far solar system objects as part of the search for a possible massive planet well. beyond Pluto.
In 2014, this same team found the object … Read more
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