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LONDON, Oct. 10 (BelTA – Xinhua) – The lunar Europe of Jupiter, Europa, is probably covered with ice sheets up to 15 meters in height in its equatorial regions, suggested researchers at Cardiff University in Wales.
The potentially life-giving Europa has been studied by NASA, whose work has become more difficult due to ice tours.
"Clearly, the paper strongly suggests that the tropics of Europe are going to be spiked, and it would be unwise to plan the landing without a specially adapted lander," said Dan Hobley, senior author of the paper. study and lecturer at the School of Earth and Oceans Sciences of Cardiff University.
Shredded ice towers could also be found on Earth, especially in the high, dry and cold tropical regions such as the Chilean Andes. These ice towers are called "penitents", in Spanish "penitent" because they often look like people kneeling in penance.
Scientists have discovered that Europa's penitents can be up to 15 meters tall, about seven meters apart, while on Earth their height usually ranges from one to five meters.
"The penitential Europa are growing much more slowly than the Earth's examples, but on Earth they could be limited to one season or maybe two until they melt in the summer or are covered with more snow, but on Europa they are sitting in the sun 50 million years ago, "explained Hobley.
NASA plans to launch a mission called Europa Clipper in the 2020s. With a cost of 2 billion US dollars, the mission "will fly close to the icy moon from a long orbit loop around Jupiter", will evaluate the site possible landing on Europa and will look for signs of life on the moon.
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