Jupiter’s moon could spit water columns from its ice crust

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other tools have detected evidence of scattered plumes of water vapor rising perhaps 200 km above Europe’s frozen surface, according to the US space site. .

This water comes from the buried ocean, increasing the possibility that a spacecraft could sample this potentially vital environment without even touching the moon.

Such sampling work could be done by NASA’s Europa Clipper probe, which is expected to launch in mid-2020.

Clipper will orbit Jupiter and study Europe for dozens of close flights, distinguish the ocean and ice crust, and explore potential landing sites for a future lander, and these large visible plumes may have a smaller connection. emanating from a source just below the surface.

Scientists led by Gregor Steinberg of Stanford University and Joanna Voigt of the University of Arizona analyzed the Mannan crater region of Moon Europe, which is 29 km wide and created by the impact of dozens of million years ago.

The heat from this effect undoubtedly melted much of the nearby ice, and the researchers devised a model for what happened next. And they found that some pockets of liquid brine probably survived for some time after most of the meltwater froze.

The team determined that such pockets could move sideways by melting adjacent ice, causing pressure to build up that ultimately detonated a plume of about 1.6 km.

“The work is exciting because it supports the growing body of research showing that there can be multiple types of plumes in Europe,” said Robert Pappalardo, Project Europa Clipper scientist, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California, in the same press release.